shadowing

/ˈʃædoʊɪŋ/
noun
  1. The practice of following and observing someone closely, especially to learn a job or skill.
    • The new intern spent a week doing job shadowing with the senior designer.
    • Shadowing is a common way for medical students to learn from experienced doctors.
    • She arranged a shadowing opportunity at the law firm to see if she wanted to become a lawyer.
  2. A language learning technique where you repeat spoken words immediately after hearing them, mimicking the speaker's intonation and rhythm.
    • Shadowing helps improve pronunciation and listening comprehension at the same time.
    • Many language teachers recommend shadowing to build fluency and confidence.
    • He practiced shadowing with an audio recording of a native speaker every morning.
  3. A subtle, unwanted copy or echo effect in audio or video, where a signal arrives slightly later than the original.
    • Engineers worked to eliminate the shadowing caused by signal reflection off the building.
    • Shadowing in the video feed made the moving objects appear to have a faint duplicate.
    • The radio broadcast had a slight shadowing that made voices sound hollow.
adjective
  1. Following closely and observing, especially for training or surveillance.
    • The shadowing officer stayed just behind the trainee during the patrol.
    • The shadowing program pairs new employees with experienced mentors.
    • A shadowing detective watched the suspect from a distance.