Shadowing reframed as voice reclamation raises learner voice confidence, study finds

A four-week shadowing-based intervention embedded in sociophonetic awareness workshops was followed by a significant increase in voice confidence among 120 undergraduate English majors in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, according to a mixed-methods quasi-experimental study published on 26 October 2026 in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. The researchers, Dina Zanaty, Bunder Alshammari, Khaled Alfraidi, and Khaled Karam, frame the work as a response to linguicidal processes that erode speakers’ confidence in their own phonological identity.

The study examined how shadowing, reframed within what the authors call a Voice Reclamation Framework rather than a native-speaker imitation paradigm, shaped the interplay between pronunciation, identity, and agency. In this framing, the learner’s voice is positioned as a site of self-recognition and cultural negotiation rather than an accent to be corrected toward native-speaker norms.

Quantitative data included a Voice Confidence Scale administered across the intervention, alongside acoustic analysis of speech rate, pitch range, and pausing patterns. Qualitative evidence was drawn from reflective voice diaries and semi-structured interviews. Voice confidence increased significantly in both the Egyptian and Saudi cohorts, with a mean gain of approximately 30 percent.

Acoustic change, by contrast, remained limited. The study recorded modest, non-significant shifts in the measured prosodic features, which participants framed as more intentional pausing and individualized pitch adjustment rather than dramatic transformation. The authors explicitly acknowledge that acoustic change over the four-week intervention window was constrained.

The findings suggest that shadowing, when positioned as voice reclamation, can support identity ownership and contest deficit-based narratives in global English. The authors present this as a contribution to applied linguistics, sociophonetics, and World Englishes research, showing how embodied voice practices may reposition the learner’s voice within these fields.

Because the design was quasi-experimental, the reported confidence gains are associated with the intervention within this specific population of undergraduate English majors in two countries, and the study’s scope and four-week duration bound what can be concluded from it.

Subject of Research: Shadowing-based voice reclamation and pronunciation identity among undergraduate English majors in Egypt and Saudi Arabia

Article Title: Combating linguicide through pronunciation and voice reclamation: shadowing as an identity practice

Article References: Zanaty, D., Alshammari, B., Alfraidi, K., & Karam, K. (2026). Combating linguicide through pronunciation and voice reclamation: shadowing as an identity practice. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 13(1), Article 1900. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-09337-8

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-026-09337-8

Keywords: shadowing, voice reclamation, linguicide, sociophonetics, pronunciation, World Englishes, voice confidence, identity, applied linguistics, quasi-experimental study, Egypt, Saudi Arabia