Doing shadowing

[Vedun]

How do you go about doing shadowing? When I try, I don't know what the speaker is about the say, lag behind about a second and not before long mix it all up and end up not comprehending the input either.

Would listening at reduced speed help?
Would relistening help? I could remember this and that, but will have to spend twice as much time on the same material.

[Speakeasy]

Shadowing, from the master himself ...

Shadowing -- Professor Arguelles -- Foreign Language Expertise
http://www.foreignlanguageexpertise.com/foreign_language_study.html

Shadowing a Foreign Language – Professor Arguelles – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdheWK7u11w

Shadowing Discussed – Professor Arguelles – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHYDBYHi2bc

Shadowing Step by Step – Professor Arguelles – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=130bOvRpt24

[reineke]

Enhancing Short-Term Memory for Accurate Interpreting
August 1, 2014

Enhancing Short-Term Memory for Accurate Interpreting

By Roda P. Roberts

The ATA Chronicle, Volume XLIII, Number 7, July 2014

Good memory has to be developed gradually.

It has often been said that an interpreter needs to have a good memory. This statement, while true to a large extent, is somewhat misleading. It seems to imply, among other things, that an interpreter should be able to recall in great detail what he or she read or experienced several years ago. While that kind of recall would be a great asset for anybody, it is certainly not essential for an interpreter. Interpreters work in the moment, so what they need to remember and recall is what has just been said by other participants in the communicative situation in which they are working that day. In other words, what they need is a good short-term memory.

Short-Term Memory and Interpreting

The role of short-term memory in interpreting has been discussed by several interpreting researchers. The Atkinson-Shiffrin memory model formed the basis of Danica Seleskovitch’s analysis of consecutive interpreting.4 Seleskovitch proposed that successful interpreting is based on an understanding of the message in the source language and the restatement of that message in the target language. She felt that interpreters do not simply transfer the words of the original, but rather the sense of a speech in a given communicative situation, taking into account each word’s register and style. Daniel Gile, whose performance models have been adopted here, views interpreting performance as a set of three efforts—the Listening and Analysis Effort, the Production Effort, and the Short-term Memory Effort—each of which takes up part of a limited supply of processing capacity.

Listening and Analysis Effort: Involves all of the comprehension-oriented activities, from analysis of the acoustic features of incoming sounds, to the recognition of certain sound sequences as words in the source language, to the interpretation of the meaning of words and sentences.
Production Effort: The output part of interpreting, which involves all of the operations extending from the mental representation of the message to be delivered to speech planning and the performance of the speech plan.
Short-Term Memory Effort: Involves operations that occur continuously while interpreting. First, short-term memory operations are required because of the lag between the moment speech sounds are heard and the moment they are analyzed. Moreover, short-term memory also comes into play between the time speech sounds are analyzed and formulated as ideas and the time it takes to produce speech. The Short-term Memory Effort can be intensified due to situational issues or language-specific factors (e.g., the speaker’s accent is difficult to understand, the speech is unclear due to poor logic or the sheer density of the information presented). It is also more difficult to remember information if the source language is syntactically different, with embedded structures, from the target language, causing the interpreter to reformulate speech segments earlier than normal.

Consequences of Inadequate Short-Term Memory

Memory plays a role at every stage of the interpreting process. Proper functioning of short-term memory involves:

Efficient processing of sounds into recognized words and then into chunks of information, calling upon long-term memory as required to fill in any gaps.
Effective storage of these information chunks.
Timely recall of the information.
Inadequate short-term memory inevitably has negative consequences, some of which may not be obvious. The most obvious consequence of poor short-term memory is omission while interpreting...

Less obvious but nevertheless serious consequences can result when memory requirements are greater than memory capacity. For instance, saturation may occur when the source and target languages are syntactically very different from each other, thereby forcing the interpreter to store a large amount of information for long periods before being able to reformulate it. This saturation can lead to the interpreter not having enough memory capacity to complete the task. Moreover, the higher the density of the informational content of the source-language speech, the harder it is for the interpreter to remember all of the chunks of information.

General Guidelines for Exercises for Enhancing Short-Term Memory

As mentioned earlier, proper functioning of short-term memory involves: 1) efficient processing of sounds into recognized words and then into chunks of information, 2) effective storage of these chunks, and 3) timely recall of the chunks of information. While it would be good to work on each of these aspects separately, this is unfortunately not possible, since the only way to verify efficient processing of sounds into words and units of meaning, as well as their effective storage in short-term memory, is through recall in one form or another. So, the exercises proposed in the following sections will involve all of these aspects, although the length of the speech span processed and stored, as well as the timing of recall (how quickly recall takes place), will vary.

Exercise 1: Shadowing

Shadowing involves repeating what a speaker says, word for word, in the same language. It generally involves staying a word or two behind the speaker as one repeats what has been said. This lag can be increased slowly as the one doing the shadowing becomes more comfortable with the exercise. Shadowing is an exercise that is usually practiced in preparation for simultaneous interpreting, since it teaches the interpreter to listen and speak at the same time. For example:

Speaker: The suspect was handcuffed and placed in the police car.

Interpreter: [Lag] The suspect [Lag] was handcuffed [Lag] and placed in the police car.

Shadowing is also a good exercise for memory development, since it forces the interpreter to store and recall small groups of sounds, words, and chunks of information in a relatively short period of time. However, this exercise is complicated by the fact that the speaker continues to speak while the interpreter is recalling a previous segment. Since this forces the interpreter to listen and speak at the same time, which increases the level of difficulty of the exercise, he or she may not derive full benefit from this exercise for memory development purposes—at least not at the start of memory training. This is where shadowing with a twist comes into play (see Exercise 2).

Material for Exercise: Any type of text would be suitable. The initial texts should not be more than about 100 words, although they can get progressively longer. Here is a sample text:

The morning of October 17 we were on routine patrol in town. At 1:15 a.m. we were dispatched to the Polecat Bar to investigate an assault call. When we arrived at the bar approximately five minutes later, an ambulance was parked in front. We proceeded directly into the establishment and observed activity behind the bar in the kitchen. When we entered the kitchen, we observed a female subject lying on the floor. The two ambulance attendants said the woman had suffered a knife wound, but was still alive. We instructed them to get her to the hospital right away.

Preparation: If you are practicing on your own, you will need to prerecord the selected texts using a normal rate of speech. However, if you are pressed for time, you could practice shadowing using short spans of speech (preferably news items) heard on the radio or television. If you are working with a group, you could have one person read out the selected text while another shadows it.

Exercise 2: Shadowing with a Twist

Shadowing with a twist, like conventional shadowing, involves repeating exactly what a speaker says in the same language. However, in shadowing with a twist, this repetition is done after a short pause following the speaker’s utterance, which makes the shadowing more like consecutive interpreting. This adjustment to conventional shadowing eliminates the difficulties related to listening and speaking at the same time and allows the interpreter to focus specifically on memory. For example:

Speaker: The suspect [Pause] was handcuffed [Pause] and placed in the police car.

Interpreter: [Lag] The suspect [Lag] was handcuffed [Lag] and placed in the police car.

Additional twists can be added to shadowing by making the repeated utterance span longer and longer until it reaches a full sentence.

Material for Exercise: The same as for Exercise 1

Preparation: You will first need to divide the selected texts into short speaking segments. Next, you must prerecord the texts using a normal rate of speech, but pausing between the speech segments.

Exercise 3: Freer Shadowing with a Twist

This exercise should be done once the interpreter has practiced shadowing with a twist and can repeat longer utterances without a problem. This is where the interpreter should test not only acoustic memory (memory of sounds), but also his or her memory of meaning. In this exercise the interpreter does not just repeat blindly what has been said, but, where possible, says the same thing using other words. For example:

Speaker: The suspect was handcuffed [Pause] and placed in the police car.

Interpreter: [Lag] The suspect was put in handcuffs [Lag] and put in the police car.

Or even:

Interpreter: [Lag] Handcuffs were put on the suspect [Lag] and he was placed in the police car.

This type of slightly freer rendering or paraphrasing of the original is often frowned upon in court interpreter training, where it is considered a dangerous first step toward “free translation,” which is a no-no in the legal environment. However, this practice is harmless enough as one element of a memory exercise.

Material and Preparation: The same as for Exercise 2.

Exercise 4: Attentive Listening for Key Elements

Careful listening is an important element of memory recall. If you have not listened attentively to something, it is impossible to recall it later. First and foremost, attentive listening involves identifying the key points of an utterance. For example, you should be able to listen to a short narrative or descriptive text (about 100 words) and answer the key questions “Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?” (or as many of these questions as applicable). For example:

It was about eight o’clock. I was watching TV, CNN. Then I went to the kitchen to get a drink of water. At that time the four men came in from the back door, which was open to let in some fresh air. They had something covering their faces. Like ski masks—balaclavas. They came right into the kitchen. Then, one of them said that they wanted money and jewelry. And at once they told me to turn around and not look at them and then to lie down on the floor, so I did, because I knew that I didn’t have any choice.

After listening to this text, you should be able to identify the following key points:

Who? Speaker + four robbers
What? Home invasion
Where? In speaker’s home
When? Around eight p.m.
Why? Robbery
How? Robbers using balaclavas, asking speaker to lie on the floor and not look at them
While not all of these questions would necessarily be pertinent in every case, the ability to answer most of them would indicate attentive listening for key points.

Material for Exercise: Any narrative text or descriptive text would be suitable. If you are a court interpreter, you can extract a suitable narrative from the opening address of a trial or from witness testimony. The initial texts should not be more than about 100 words, although they can get progressively longer.

Preparation: If you are practicing on your own, you will need to prerecord the selected texts using a normal rate of speech. If you are working with a group, you could have one person read out the selected text while another identifies the key elements.

Exercise 5: Progressive Expansion of Recall

Good memory has to be developed gradually. One cannot move from forgetting about half of what one hears to remembering it all. The following exercise has been created bearing this in mind. It is based on a 50-60-word speech utterance and involves recalling first the main ideas and then, during a second or even third pass, recalling progressively more details. Here is a sample text:

My husband, Peter Thomas, was killed by a young man driving a stolen car. He had phoned me at noon to tell me he was going to the bank during his lunch hour, and five minutes later he was crossing the street when he was struck down. He was killed instantly. I was devastated when I heard the news.

First, the interpreter must listen to the text once and identify the main ideas, such as:

My husband was run over by a car.
He was killed instantly.
I was devastated.
Next, the interpreter must listen once again to the text and then add more details to the main ideas. For example:

My husband was run over by a stolen car as he was crossing the street.
He was killed instantly.
I was devastated by the news.
Finally, the interpreter should listen one more time and then recall all of the details (including the name of the husband).

Not being expected to recall all of the details from the start allows the interpreter to be more relaxed and to remember more than he or she would if tense. As the interpreter becomes more proficient at recall, the number of times he or she listens to the text can be reduced from three to two. The size of the practice text can also be increased to 70, 80, or even 100 words. The ultimate goal is to be able to reproduce, after listening just once, all of the details found in an utterance that is around 50 words.

Material for Exercise: Any narrative text would be suitable. If you are a court interpreter, you can extract a suitable narrative from witness testimony. The initial texts should not be more than about 50 words, although they can get progressively longer.

Preparation: If you are practicing on your own, you will need to prerecord the selected texts using a normal rate of speech. If you are working with a group, you could have one person read out the selected text while another does the exercise.

The higher the density of the informational content of the source-language speech, the harder it is for the interpreter to remember all of the chunks of information.

...
Exercise 7: Segmentation

This exercise is based on the concept that it is easier to retain a number of limited chunks of information than one or two larger dense chunks. Segmentation involves breaking up a larger chunk of information into two or more smaller chunks. For instance, the following sentence can be segmented as indicated:

I was at the local bar when I met a person by the name of Ricardo, whom I now know to be a sergeant in the police department working with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

I was at the local bar.
There I met somebody called Ricardo.
Now I know he is a police sergeant.
He is working with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
This exercise can be performed using both written texts and oral texts, preferably starting with the former and ending with the latter. The segmentation itself can be done either in writing or orally.

Material for Exercise: Any long sentences would be suitable for this exercise, although the denser the information they contain the more challenging they will be. The sentences should contain at least three separable chunks of information. If you are a court interpreter, you can extract suitable sentences from court transcripts (e.g., the opening address of a trial or even witness testimony).

Preparation: If you are doing this exercise using written material (i.e., reading the sentences), you will not need to do any further preparation. However, while doing the exercise, you will have to be disciplined enough to read the sentence only once before doing the segmentation. If you are doing this exercise using oral material while practicing on your own, you will need to prerecord the selected sentences using a normal rate of speech. If you are working with a group, you could have one person read out the selected sentence while another segments it.

...

Make Your Practice a Routine

Practicing exercises for memory improvement is similar to doing physical exercise for weight loss from several different viewpoints:

Both types of exercise need to be done regularly to be effective.
Both types of exercise can be used not only for improvement in memory or weight, but also for maintenance at a high level.
Both types of exercise require variety to be most effective. In other words, doing the same exercise every day (and even worse, with the same material) will not be of great value.
Both types of exercise take some time for their effect to be felt.
The effect of both types of exercise can be measured to some extent using scales for weight loss exercise and the ear-voice span for memory exercise.
Both types of exercise require effort on the part of their users.
The effort required on the part of interpreters using memory exercises involves identifying suitable exercises, finding appropriate practice material, and preparing the material for use. While there are some prepared exercises and material available, they are not all equally effective. Perhaps some of the more innovative exercises that have been proposed here could be done using available recordings. This would save interpreters the time and effort required to find material from scratch and prepare them for use. It would also encourage them to get started right away on a personal program for memory enhancement.

Notes

Atkinson, Richard, and Richard Shiffrin. “Human Memory: A Proposed System and Its Control Processes.” In Spence, K.W., and J.T. Spence. The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Volume 2 (New York: Academic Press, 1968), 89-195, http://bit.ly/human-memory.
Duong, Tran Thuy. “How to Improve Short-Term Memory in Interpreting” (Hanoi University of Foreign Studies, 2006), http://bit.ly/Duong-short-term.
Cowan, Nelson. “What Are the Differences Between Long-Term, Short-Term, and Working Memory?” Progress in Brain Research, Volume 169 (Elsevier, 2008), 323–338,http://bit.ly/Cowan-memory.
Seleskovitch, Danica. L’interprète dans les conférences internationales – problèmes de langage et de communication (Paris: Lettres Modernes Minard, 1968), http://bit.ly/Amazon-Seleskovitch.
Gile, Daniel. Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter and Translator Training (Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1995), http://bit.ly/Benjamins-Daniel-Gile.

http://www.techinput.com/news/enhancing-short-term

[StringerBell]

How do you go about doing shadowing? When I try, I don't know what the speaker is about the say, lag behind about a second and not before long mix it all up and end up not comprehending the input either.

When I've done shadowing, it's been when I have both the audio and the text available; either a video with subtitles or a podcast with a transcript. Because of this, I know what is about to be said. Without the text, I don't think I could do any shadowing. Have you tried this with some kind of text in front of you?

[jeff_lindqvist]

How do you go about doing shadowing? When I try, I don't know what the speaker is about the say, lag behind about a second and not before long mix it all up and end up not comprehending the input either.

Would listening at reduced speed help?
Would relistening help? I could remember this and that, but will have to spend twice as much time on the same material.

I've never ever shadowed with the text in front of me. The better I am in the language, the better I am at hearing/decoding the audio at the same time. Last week I started working with FSI German Headstart. (I've never listened to it before.) I only use the audio. Whenever there's a new dialogue, I blind-shadow it. I also shadow most (if not all) of the German audio throughout the units. (And I also do the exercises.)

[David1917]

How do you go about doing shadowing? When I try, I don't know what the speaker is about the say, lag behind about a second and not before long mix it all up and end up not comprehending the input either.

Would listening at reduced speed help?
Would relistening help? I could remember this and that, but will have to spend twice as much time on the same material.

You will naturally be a 1/2 second behind or so. It's almost more of a focus exercise, because you have to be able to immediately reproduce a sound on hearing without getting a chance to think about it. The pronunciation skills and "internalization" of the dialogue are more like side effects. Also bear in mind, per the instructions on shadowing, you will listen to any given dialogue 10 or so times before you are expected to really understand it fully. It's an exercise in automaticity and absorption - though not explicitly osmosis.

Per the longer shadowing video, you might "blind shadow" a whole course 1-2x before moving into the waves as such:

"Blind shadow" - Lesson 38
Shadow reading translation - Lessons 35-37; at this point you have heard Lesson 35 around 6 times, and read along with the target language twice. At this point, you should be getting a good feel for it.
Shadow switching between pages - Lessons 31-34; Lesson 31 you have heard now 9-10 times, read the translation 6 times. So now you're reading *mostly* target language.
Shadow reading target language - Lessons 28-30; Lesson 28 is up to 13-14 times through. You're reading exclusively target language and understanding, not every single word, but following along (hopefully) with pleasure. You then take 28 and analyze it, reading the notes, and perhaps copying it down by hand (or if you're an anki person, perhaps now putting the words that still trouble you into a deck)

The next day you take lessons 29-39 in this format, and so on. For more difficult languages I've changed to 7-day waves, which has helped line up the review days in Assimil. For other courses, you might need to make adjustments. Linguaphone/FSI for example break the 3 sections of one lesson into different days. Cortina will vary a little bit across the course. TYS & Colloquial you may need to create a translated text first to read along with. Each day's new lesson should be about 1 minute long, as they are with Assimil, the course this technique was more or less designed around.

The prof also describes it as being like a video game - The first time you hear and try to speak along with a new language will be extremely difficult, but on round 15, you should have the dialogue pretty well in your head, and able to anticipate the next "sound" if not the next word and its meaning. I have been rotating languages weekly to "blind shadow" on my bike rides/walks to work, and found that with Hindi for example, I have listened to the Assimil course maybe 6 times now, and by the last play through while I only know what about 5 Hindi words mean, I am remembering the contour of certain lessons, and remembering that "ah after this sentence is the one that sounds like xyz." There's a lesson on the Persian course I know got edited a little too close and so when the narrator finishes the last line it will almost be cut off when she announces the next lesson. Those are the kinds of things you're trying to achieve with shadowing. Keep rockin through that course and eventually you won't be behind or mixing it up.