Effect of a Pragmatic Context on Elicited Imitation

Elicited imitation is often used to measure the linguistic performance of elementary school children. Conflicting results have been reported regarding the effect of context vs no context on children's elicited imitation behavior. In the present study, Carrow's Elicited Language Inventory was administered in its standardized form and in an experimental form using discourse cues to 8 boys and 1 girl who were language-disordered. Ages ranged from 5:4 to 7:11. Significant differences were noted in linguistic performance, as measured by accuracy of imitation, between pragmatic context and no-context conditions of test. The findings indicated that the pragmatic context improved linguistic accuracy of imitation for the language-disordered children. Diagnostic implications are discussed.