An Exploratory Study of Strategy Use on Elicited Imitation Tasks
Elicited imitation (EI) has gained popularity with recent interests in the quest for efficient and flexible measures of second language (L2) proficiency. Despite the surge of interests, questions remain as to what specific linguistic knowledge, skills, and strategies EI measures. To contribute to th...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-06-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.917168/full |
| _version_ | 1811337432397774848 |
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| author | Yuyun Lei Xun Yan Xun Yan |
| author_facet | Yuyun Lei Xun Yan Xun Yan |
| author_sort | Yuyun Lei |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Elicited imitation (EI) has gained popularity with recent interests in the quest for efficient and flexible measures of second language (L2) proficiency. Despite the surge of interests, questions remain as to what specific linguistic knowledge, skills, and strategies EI measures. To contribute to this line of inquiry, this study explored the nature of strategy use and its effect on EI performance to elucidate the constructs of EI. Twenty-four L2 learners and eight native speakers of Chinese completed an EI test of Chinese and a strategy use questionnaire after the test. Qualitative analyses of the questionnaire responses revealed that participants mainly employed five types of strategies, including approach strategies, cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, communication strategies, and test-wiseness strategies. While native speakers reported the least number of strategies, higher-proficiency L2 learners reported more strategies than lower-proficiency L2 learners. We further subjected strategy use, along with participant proficiency level, item length, and item complexity level, to linear mixed-effects regression analyses. The results showed that participant proficiency level, item length, and item complexity level explained the largest test score variance; in contrast, strategy use of different types only accounted for a smaller proportion. The total number of cognitive strategies had a significant, positive effect on EI performance whereas the total number of metacognitive strategies had a significant, negative effect. These findings offer some insights into the nature of speech comprehension and production on EI and provide validity evidence for the use of EI as a language proficiency measure. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T17:54:46Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f7f49438dd5c44a3aeaf62efe11b3edf |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T17:54:46Z |
| publishDate | 2022-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-f7f49438dd5c44a3aeaf62efe11b3edf2022-12-22T02:36:33ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782022-06-011310.3389/fpsyg.2022.917168917168An Exploratory Study of Strategy Use on Elicited Imitation TasksYuyun Lei0Xun Yan1Xun Yan2Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, United StatesDepartment of Linguistics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana-Champaign, IL, United StatesBeckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, Urbana, IL, United StatesElicited imitation (EI) has gained popularity with recent interests in the quest for efficient and flexible measures of second language (L2) proficiency. Despite the surge of interests, questions remain as to what specific linguistic knowledge, skills, and strategies EI measures. To contribute to this line of inquiry, this study explored the nature of strategy use and its effect on EI performance to elucidate the constructs of EI. Twenty-four L2 learners and eight native speakers of Chinese completed an EI test of Chinese and a strategy use questionnaire after the test. Qualitative analyses of the questionnaire responses revealed that participants mainly employed five types of strategies, including approach strategies, cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, communication strategies, and test-wiseness strategies. While native speakers reported the least number of strategies, higher-proficiency L2 learners reported more strategies than lower-proficiency L2 learners. We further subjected strategy use, along with participant proficiency level, item length, and item complexity level, to linear mixed-effects regression analyses. The results showed that participant proficiency level, item length, and item complexity level explained the largest test score variance; in contrast, strategy use of different types only accounted for a smaller proportion. The total number of cognitive strategies had a significant, positive effect on EI performance whereas the total number of metacognitive strategies had a significant, negative effect. These findings offer some insights into the nature of speech comprehension and production on EI and provide validity evidence for the use of EI as a language proficiency measure.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.917168/fullstrategy useelicited imitationvalidityproficiencyChinese |
| spellingShingle | Yuyun Lei Xun Yan Xun Yan An Exploratory Study of Strategy Use on Elicited Imitation Tasks Frontiers in Psychology strategy use elicited imitation validity proficiency Chinese |
| title | An Exploratory Study of Strategy Use on Elicited Imitation Tasks |
| title_full | An Exploratory Study of Strategy Use on Elicited Imitation Tasks |
| title_fullStr | An Exploratory Study of Strategy Use on Elicited Imitation Tasks |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Exploratory Study of Strategy Use on Elicited Imitation Tasks |
| title_short | An Exploratory Study of Strategy Use on Elicited Imitation Tasks |
| title_sort | exploratory study of strategy use on elicited imitation tasks |
| topic | strategy use elicited imitation validity proficiency Chinese |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.917168/full |
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