scholarly journals MEASUREMENT PROPERTIES OF A STANDARDIZED ELICITED IMITATION TEST: AN INTEGRATIVE DATA ANALYSIS

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Daniel R. Isbell ◽  
Young-A Son
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Item Difficulty ◽  
Measurement Properties ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Elicited Imitation ◽  
Integrative Data Analysis ◽  
Rater Severity ◽  
Study Participants

Abstract Elicited Imitation Tests (EITs) are commonly used in second language acquisition (SLA)/bilingualism research contexts to assess the general oral proficiency of study participants. While previous studies have provided valuable EIT construct-related validity evidence, some key gaps remain. This study uses an integrative data analysis to further probe the validity of the Korean EIT score interpretations by examining the performances of 318 Korean learners (198 second language, 79 foreign language, and 41 heritage) on the Korean EIT scored by five different raters. Expanding on previous EIT validation efforts, this study (a) examined both inter-rater reliability and differences in rater severity, (b) explored measurement bias across subpopulations of language learners, (c) identified relevant linguistic features which relate to item difficulty, and (d) provided a norm-referenced interpretation for Korean EIT scores. Overall, findings suggest that the Korean EIT can be used in diverse SLA/bilingualism research contexts, as it measures ability similarly across subgroups and raters.

scholarly journals Using elicited imitation to measure global oral proficiency in SLA research: A close replication study

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Kevin McManus ◽  
Yingying Liu
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Original Study ◽  
High Level Language ◽  
Elicited Imitation ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Fourth Level ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
High Level

Abstract We closely replicated Wu and Ortega (2013), who found that an elicited imitation test (EIT) reliably distinguished low-level from high-level language abilities among instructed second language (L2) learners of Mandarin Chinese. The original study sampled learners (1) from second-level courses to represent low-level language abilities and (2) from third-, fourth- and graduate-level courses to represent high-level language abilities. Results showed high-level learners outperformed low-level learners on the Mandarin EIT. Our close replication used Wu and Ortega's (2013) materials and procedures in order to understand (1) the extent to which this EIT can additionally distinguish between finer-grained language abilities and (2) the ways in which the broad grouping of language abilities in the high group may have contributed to the findings. Sixty-five instructed L2 learners from four instructional levels were assigned to one of three groups: Beginner (first-level courses), Low (second-level courses), High (third- and fourth-level courses). Consistent with the original study, our results showed clear between-group differences, indicating that the EIT can distinguish between both broad (beginner vs high) and finer-grained (beginner vs low, low vs high) language abilities. These results are discussed in light of the original study's findings with implications for proficiency assessment in second language acquisition (SLA) research.

Morpheme Data Analysis in Second Language Acquisition Research

1988 ◽  
Vol 79-80 ◽  
pp. 77-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Pica
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Production Accuracy

Abstract This article will review options which confront second language acquisition researchers in their analysis of a learner’s morpheme production. It will first critically examine several different procedures which can be used to compute production accuracy, particularly when assigning values to morpheme oversuppliance, substitution, and regularization, and then review various ways in which morpheme suppliance scores can be computed within individual linguistic contexts or on overall basis, across a speaker’s corpus. Conversations with 18 native Spanish speaking adult acquirers of English L2 will be used to highlight the often contradictory results obtained when one procedure is chosen over another to quantify the same corpus of morphemes, and to set forth problems which arise when comparisons are made of learners whose morpheme production accuracy has not been computed under the same procedures. Finally, the argument will be made that issues arising from procedural choices in morpheme data analysis are also relevant to research on other dimensions of second language acquisition.

The importance of increased processing demands in the design of Elicited Imitation tests

2021 ◽  
pp. 136216882110260
Author(s):  
Rosemary Erlam ◽  
Lan Wei
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Elicited Imitation ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Processing Demands ◽  
Test Version ◽  
Implicit And Explicit ◽  
Metalinguistic Knowledge ◽  
Belief Statements

This study is a conceptual replication of Ellis’ ‘Measuring implicit and explicit knowledge of a second language: A psychometric study’, published in Studies in Second Language Acquisition (2005), aiming to establish the importance of including belief statements (hypothesized to increase processing demands) in the design of Elicited Imitation (EI) tests. In a between-groups comparison, 103 participants completed one of two versions of Erlam’s EI test (2006), one which required participants to make a ‘belief’ judgement, and one which did not. Both contained ungrammatical stimuli. Participants were scored for repetition of grammatical stimuli and correction of ungrammatical stimuli. An Exit questionnaire aimed to establish how aware they were of ungrammatical stimuli. Participants also completed a timed grammaticality judgement test (TGJT), an untimed grammaticality judgement test (UGJT), a metalinguistic knowledge test (MKT), and another Elicited Imitation (EI) test designed as a measure of global proficiency. Performance on each EI version was examined in relationship to performance on these measures. There was no variation between performance on either EI test version. The article underscores the need for ongoing research investigating design features of EI tests.

Susan Gass, Antonella Sorace, and Larry Selinker. Second language data analysis (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. 1999. Pp. 131.

2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 641-643
Author(s):  
Martha C. Pennington
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Methods Of Analysis ◽  
Language Data

This workbook is a revised edition of the volume published in 1984 by Larry Selinker and Susan Gass entitled Workbook in Second Language Acquisition. Like the first edition, this edition provides a research-centered view of second language acquisition (SLA) that seeks to build an awareness of the issues, types of data, and methods of analysis through a series of practical problems of data analysis and related questions. The data and problems, which all focus on English as the target language, are drawn from articles published between 1968 and 1993, the majority of them “SLA classics” published in the 1980s. The book includes a short glossary and has accompanying tape-recorded material not provided to the reviewer.

scholarly journals Verb placement in second language acquisition: Experimental evidence for the different behavior of auxiliary and lexical verbs

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 821-858 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOSJE VERHAGEN
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Production Data ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Elicited Imitation ◽  
Grammatical Knowledge ◽  
Verb Placement ◽  
Sentence Matching

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the acquisition of verb placement by Moroccan and Turkish second language (L2) learners of Dutch. Elicited production data corroborate earlier findings from L2 German that learners who do not produce auxiliaries do not raise lexical verbs over negation, whereas learners who produce auxiliaries do. Data from elicited imitation and sentence matching support this pattern and show that learners can have grammatical knowledge of auxiliary placement before they can produce auxiliaries. With lexical verbs, they do not show such knowledge. These results present further evidence for the different behavior of auxiliary and lexical verbs in early stages of L2 acquisition.

Non-Native Varieties of English: Nativization, Norms, and Implications

1986 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter H. Lowenberg
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Official Language ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
English Usage ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

Institutionalized “non-native” varieties of English have developed in countries such as Nigeria and India, where English is widely used as a second, often official, language in a broad range of intranational domains. These varieties are characterized by “nativization” (Kachru, 1981a): systematic changes in their formal features at all linguistic levels, which result from the use of English in new sociocultural settings, in contact with other languages, and in the absence of native speakers of English. This paper demonstrates how non-native varieties are distinct from interlanguages or approximative systems of “established” (Platt & Weber, 1980) varieties of English (e.g., British or American). Crucial differences are illustrated in strategies common to both nativization and second language acquisition—generalization of rules in the established varieties of English and transfer of linguistic features from other languages—in terms of linguistic contexts in which they apply and motivations underlying their application. A survey of positive attitudes toward non-native varieties among their users indicates that certain nativized features are becoming new norms for English usage in many countries. These strategies of and attitudes toward nativization are shown to have important implications for the teaching of English as a second language and for linguistic theory.

scholarly journals Factors influencing the pronunciation of adult speakers of a foreign language

2015 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-158
Author(s):  
Emilia Szalkowska-Kim
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
English Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Grammatical Knowledge ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Second Language Phonology ◽  
L2 Phonology

Abstract The present paper is an overview of selected investigations into acquisition of second language phonology (L2).1 It describes L2 phonology researchers’ attempts to determine the number, quantity, quality and roles of the factors which shape the pronunciation of L2 adult speakers, i.e. what is the influence of native language limitation, how the L2 phonology acquisition is governed by universal linguistic features, and whether adults use the same processes in acquiring the L2 that are used by children when they acquire their first language. This article will describe a number of longstanding phonetic and phonological projects whose aim was to discover patterns in the improvement of pronunciation in a second language (see research by Archibald, Broselow, Eckman, Flege, Hancin-Bhatt, Major and Weinberger, published in numerous compilations). It strives to explain the universal stages in the development of second language phonology. The main goal of the research is to assess the grammatical knowledge of the L2 learner, i.e. their competence in their interlanguage. The analyses show typological disproportions and universality of the strategies applied by the speakers in the target language. A few important hypotheses have been established (see below for their description), but it is important to note that most of the results verifying these hypotheses concern the acquisition of the English language, with a variable being the “input” languages of the speakers. Although this unilateral focus of the research projects reflects the expansion of the English language as the lingua franca of modern times, it might severely limit understanding of the important and interesting aspects of second language acquisition which structurally do not apply to that language, and are consequently overlooked.

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