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

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 rep...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Language teaching 2022-01, Vol.55 (1), p.116-135
Main Authors: McManus, Kevin, Liu, Yingying
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advanced Courses
Applied Linguistics
Comparative Analysis
Foreign language learning
Graduate Students
Grammar
Imitation
Interlanguage
Introductory Courses
Language
Language Aptitude
Language assessment
Language Proficiency
Language Research
Language Tests
Linguistics
Mandarin
Mandarin Chinese
Measurement Techniques
Multilingualism
Oral Language
Phonology
Repetition
Replication (Evaluation)
Replication Research
Research Design
Research Tools
Scoring Rubrics
Second Language Instruction
Second Language Learning
Short Term Memory
Spoken language
Stimuli
Syllables
Undergraduate Students
Validity
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0261-4448
1475-3049
DOI:10.1017/S026144482000021X