This post from pronsci clarifies the message about listen and repeat.
Why Listen & Repeat doesn't work
All around the world, pronunciation is taught using the ‘Listen and Repeat’ (L&R) model: the student is asked to listen to his teacher or to a recording, and then asked to repeat what he hears. Many students cannot do this successfully, but even those who can find that it doesn’t have a lasting effect on the way they speak.
This is because L&R misdirects the student's attention. Instead of focussing on what he is doing with his speech articulators and what the acoustic effect is, he is trying to copy an acoustic image. That copying process is attempted using good, bad or indifferent skills that he learnt in the past, but whatever his level of success he is not left with any insight into the mechanics of the pronunciation of the new language. He has little to take away with him at the end of the process.
Those few students who do emerge with good pronunciation from L&R classes do so because they subvert the process: they practise on their own, they watch what they are doing with themselves, and so on. The good results they achieve are achievable by all, if only we encourage these behaviours in everyone.
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