The evolution of elicited imitation: Syntactic priming comprehension and production task

Abstract

© 2014 Oxford University Press.Elicited imitation (EI), a technique for collecting learner data, has been widely used in first and second language (L2) acquisition research spanning the last 50 years. The literature on EI includes rich discussions pertaining to methodological concerns about its use; two major concerns are the possibility that participants employ rote repetition for production instead of reconstructive imitation and the difficulty in determining whether failures in imitation stem from problems of comprehension or production. In this article, we demonstrate how the use of our modified version of EI, the Syntactic Priming Comprehension and Production task (SPCP), addresses these two major concerns. We also discuss other merits of SPCP, including its validity in assessing learners' comprehension and production capabilities and its potential in collecting acquisition data that may be of interest to language researchers. We illustrate our discussions with examples taken from our research project on the acquisition of L2 relative clauses.