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Teachability and Learnability across Languages
Edited by Ragnar Arntzen, Gisela Håkansson, Arnstein Hjelde and Jörg-U. Keßler
[Processability Approaches to Language Acquisition Research & Teaching 6] 2019
► pp. 119–136

Chapter 6
Elicited imitation as a diagnostic tool of morpho-syntactic processing

| University of Bergamo
This chapter evaluates the Elicited Imitation (EI) test as a tool to assess learners’ morpho-syntactic processing abilities. Within the VILLA project, the treatment of the nominative/accusative opposition by 17 Italian L1 initial learners of Polish L2 is observed on the one hand in an EI test paired with a comprehension test and on the other hand in free production. The EI test regularly elicits more accurate output than free production. We argue that this is not because learners simply repeat strings of sounds with no underlying processing but because of the lower communicative pressure exerted by the structured task. Although EI is not equivalent to spontaneous production, it may well represent a good compromise between ecological validity and practicality.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
    • 2.1Input and participants
    • 2.2Structured tests
    • 2.3Spontaneous production
  • 3.Research questions, rationale and hypotheses
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 6 June 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/palart.6.06sat
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Saturno, Jacopo
2020. Word formation in the earliest stages of L2 Polish. Language, Interaction and Acquisition 11:2 ► pp. 232 ff. DOI logo
Saturno, Jacopo
2022. Production of inflectional morphology in intercomprehension-based language teaching: the case of Slavic languages. International Journal of Multilingualism 19:3 ► pp. 383 ff. DOI logo
Saturno, Jacopo & Marzena Watorek
2020. The emergence of functional case marking in initial varieties of Polish L2. Language, Interaction and Acquisition 11:1 ► pp. 32 ff. DOI logo

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