Elicited imitation (EI) is a much-used measurement instrument in applied linguistics, and it is considered a reliable and quick assessment of holistic speaking ability and implicit grammar knowledge. To date, however, EI research has overwhelmingly relied on highly educated participants. Only a few small-scale EI studies in applied linguistics have considered low-literate learners. Using Item Response Theory (IRT) and inferential parametric and nonparametric statistics, this study examined the EI performance of 113 L2 learners of Dutch with diverging educational backgrounds. All participants were enrolled in A1 and A2 Dutch L2 courses. Additionally, this study examined to what extent EI performances align with standardized tests of speaking and receptive vocabulary. The results indicate that EI can be used with both highly literate and low-educated participants, who will—however—be outperformed by higher educated learners. Especially the repetition of sentences containing pseudowords appears to result in substantial performance differences between the two groups.

中文翻译：

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诱发模仿：对所有学习者的考验？

诱导模仿（EI）是应用语言学中常用的测量工具，被认为是对整体口语能力和内隐语法知识的可靠和快速评估。然而，迄今为止，EI 研究绝大多数依赖于受过高等教育的参与者。只有少数应用语言学的小规模 EI 研究考虑了低文化学习者。本研究使用项目反应理论 (IRT) 和推理参数和非参数统计，检查了 113 名具有不同教育背景的荷兰语 L2 学习者的 EI 表现。所有参与者都参加了 A1 和 A2 荷兰语 L2 课程。此外，这项研究还检验了 EI 表现在多大程度上与口语和接受词汇的标准化测试一致。结果表明，EI 可以用于高文化和低教育的参与者，但是，他们的表现将优于受过高等教育的学习者。尤其是包含伪词的句子的重复似乎导致两组之间存在实质性的性能差异。