Validating an elicited imitation task as an equitable assessment for heritage and second language learners of Spanish

Saez Fajardo, Sara

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120425 Copy

Description

Title

Validating an elicited imitation task as an equitable assessment for heritage and second language learners of Spanish

Author(s)

Saez Fajardo, Sara

Issue Date

2023-04-27

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Bowles, Melissa A

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Bowles, Melissa A

Committee Member(s)

• Montrul, Silvina
• Shih, Chilin
• Yan, Xun

Department of Study

Spanish and Portuguese

Discipline

Spanish

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Heritage Language Acquisition
• Second Language Acquisition
• Language Assessment
• Elicited Imitation
• Research Methods

Language

eng

Abstract

The field of research on heritage languages has exponentially expanded in the past two decades, and many research studies have investigated the differences in the language acquisition of heritage language (HL) and second language (L2) learners. In the case of Spanish, the field of heritage language assessment has also grown parallel to the number of HL programs developed in institutions of higher education and which need to design identification and placement tests to assign learners to the right program and the right course level. Nonetheless, little research has explored the assessment of HL in other contexts. Particularly, there is a need to explore proficiency measures that can be used to compare speakers across groups and studies. Elicited imitation tasks (EITs) are brief and cost-effective tasks with a long tradition in the proficiency assessment of L2 learners, L1 children, and adults. However, only a few studies have explored their use with heritage speakers, despite their oral nature, which makes them appropriate for speakers with variable literacy skills. This dissertation presents the validation study of an elicited imitation task (Solon et al., 2019) that has been adapted to be accessible and effective with HL learners of different levels of competence and linguistic varieties. To provide validity evidence, Rasch analysis was applied to inspect the functioning of the task and its ability to differentiate learners across proficiency levels. Moreover, in order to obtain concurrent validity evidence, comparisons were run between the EIT and other reliable and dependable measures of proficiency (ACTFL's Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), measures of Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency (CAF), and Versant Proficiency Test). In addition to the validation study, participants' performances on the EIT were compared to their scores on the DELE test (Duffield & White, 1999), one of the most popular instruments for proficiency assessment in the field of Spanish HL research. The participant sample included 203 participants (71 HL and 132 L2 learners) at different levels of linguistic competence. All participants completed a language background questionnaire, the EIT, an oral narration task assessed with CAF measures, and the DELE. Different numbers of participants (recruited on the pilot and final study) also completed a self-assessment questionnaire with Can-Do statements, an Advisory OPI and/or the Versant Spanish Test. Results revealed that the EIT was an effective measure of proficiency for the participant sample, though it was not sufficiently challenging for the HL learners with highest levels of proficiency. Moreover, comparisons with results on the oral narration, OPI and the Versant test showed strong correlations overall, which indicated that the EIT assessed global proficiency similarly to those assessments. Finally, results also suggested that the DELE measured different dimensions of proficiency than the EIT and the Versant test, possibly due to the former measure being an assessment of higher language cognition (HLC) and the EIT and the Versant test measuring both HLC and basic language cognition (BLC) (Hulstijn, 2011). Considering the different experiences in language acquisition of HL and L2 learners, which lead to HL learners typically having a more developed BLC than HLC, and L2 learners having a more developed HLC than BLC, researchers (Drackert & Timukova, 2019) have recommended the use of assessments that target both types of knowledge. Therefore, the EIT presented in this study can be an effective and practical task to assess the proficiency of both L2 and HL learners.

Graduation Semester

2023-05

Type of Resource

Thesis

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120425

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2023 Sara Saez Fajardo

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