CATESOL

Fast Reading Aloud and Shadowing: Bottom-Up Processing in L2 Listening (TOP-IG)

Date/Time

9/25/2026
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Pacific

Event Registration

Event Type(s)

Prof Dev Meeting/Workshop
Interest Group (IG) Event

Event Description

a woman is reading from a book; the voice is going into a listener's ear

Description

The speed of aural input is commonly reported as one of the greatest challenges that L2 learners face when listening. A primary cause of this challenge lies in learners’ bottom-up processing, during which they identify the phonological information, convert it into lexical items, and organize these based on their syntactic knowledge.

To enhance learners’ bottom-up processing, two activities can be recommended: shadowing and fast reading aloud. In this presentation, the presenter will share the research findings on the effects of these activities on learners’ bottom-up processing. Although previous research has found shadowing to be effective in improving learners’ bottom-up processing in L2 listening, the speaker’s recent study, conducted at a Japanese university in Tokyo, found that fast reading aloud is significantly more effective than shadowing. The possible reasons for these inconsistent findings on the effects of shadowing will be discussed.

In the talk, the presenter will also demonstrate how easily fast reading aloud can be implemented, both in and outside the classroom, allowing participants to experience the immediate effects of the process.

Presenter

Dr. Katsuya Yokomoto is an Associate Professor at the Center for Language Education and Research at Sophia University in Tokyo. He has been teaching English for over 25 years in various contexts, including in the United States, China, and Japan. As a Japanese learner of English as a foreign language, he has long been fascinated by the learning and teaching of English pronunciation. His research interests include pronunciation teaching, World Englishes, teacher cognition, and the teaching of neurodivergent learners.