The Effect of Prosody Shadowing through Task-based Embedded Instruction on the Listening Comprehension of Iranian EFL Learners

Najafi Sarem, Saeid; Seif, Yasaman; Lotfi, Amir Hossein

doi:10.22080/iselt.2026.30044.1122

The Effect of Prosody Shadowing through Task-based Embedded Instruction on the Listening Comprehension of Iranian EFL Learners

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of English, Ha.C., Islamic Azad University, Hamedan, Iran.

² Department of English Language, Ha.C., Islamic Azad University, Hamedan, Iran.

³ Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran.

10.22080/iselt.2026.30044.1122

Abstract

This quasi-experimental study examined the effect of prosody shadowing embedded within a task-based instructional framework on the listening comprehension of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. Sixty female learners were individually randomized into experimental and control groups following proficiency screening. The experimental group received prosody shadowing integrated into a three-stage task cycle -task input, pedagogical task work, and target task performance - while the control group received traditional listening instruction. Listening comprehension was assessed using two parallel, content-validated tests with satisfactory reliability (α = .76–.80). ANCOVA results revealed a statistically significant treatment effect after controlling for pre-test scores, F(1,57) = 341.89, p < .001, with a substantial effect size (partial η² = .857). Adjusted post-test means indicated a mean difference of 3.30 points (95% CI [2.95, 3.66]) in favor of the experimental group. These findings suggest that embedding prosodic shadowing within task-based instruction can enhance bottom-up processing, prosodic awareness, and overall listening comprehension. Pedagogically, the study supports integrating suprasegmental training into communicative task cycles to strengthen learners’ strategic engagement and comprehension in EFL contexts.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). Published by the Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages at the University of Mazandaran. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.

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