Imitation and reinforcement are the most crucial tools for children's language acquisition - evaluate.

It is clear that on various occasions within the transcript Tom imitates his mother’s use of language. At the beginning of the transcript Tom's mother models the standard noun phrase "dad's bike" by recasting his utterance "dad bike" and then, after the use of self-correction, Tom then proceeds to use the standard form "dad's bike" throughout the rest of the transcript. The importance of this intercommunication between child and caregiver is identified as the underlying principle for Jerome Bruner's interactionist theory in which he also describes how the caregiver will adapt and simplify their language in order to help the child learn. We can also identify this child directed speech (CDS) within the transcript as the mother’s length of utterance considerably decreases when she says “dad’s bike” and other instances where her primary purpose is to correct Tom’s language and aid his development. As mentioned, we can see that on this occasion this suggests that a successful way of learning language is through imitation, although we cannot see if Tom has continued to use the standard noun phrase “dad’s” in the future as it is likely that the child will have to be reminded several times before it is finally reinforced. 

Despite this there are also instances where imitation does not occur. Tom makes the virtuous error of saying “it make noises” leaving out the third person singular inflection on the verb which his mother then reformulates to the standard form  “makes”. However, unlike the previous example Tom does not imitate this and simply replies with “yeah”. Arguably this “yeah” could imply that Tom has understood although it is likely that because his mother has simply echoed his previous utterance (other that adding the ‘s’ sound) he may not recognise that this is reformulation and may simply think she is agreeing. We can question the importance of imitation in child language acquisition for this reason. If language is learnt purely through imitation, then why do children make grammatical errors such as these? Naom Chomsky presents the idea that children could not possibly learn from imitation alone, as ‘the language spoken around them is highly irregular and sometimes ungrammatical’. He also believes that rather than social causes playing the primary role in language acquisition, children are born with an innate ability to learn language called a language acquisition device or LAD. It could be argued that Tom’s use of “make” rather than “makes” supports Chomky’s theory as it clear that he has not learnt this purely form imitation alone. 

B.F. Skinner produced his behaviorist theory in which similarly to Bruner he believes children are ‘empty vessels’ in which language has to be ‘put into’. His theory consists of the idea that correct utterances are positively reinforced by a rewarding outcome and this therefore enhances the child’s language development.  Further on in the transcript Tom asks “is these drawing Cartoon Network cup of Tea Mum” which the mother then replies with “um (.) no (.) it’s a moving shadow mug (.) it looks like the Cartoon Network logo (.) but it’s actually something else”. At first, we may perceive this as negative, rather than positive reinforcement as she uses the negative participle “no” although she does go on to give him what he wanted by answering his question which in this case acts as his “reward”. This supports the idea that as well as imitation, reinforcement also plays a role within CLA. 

However, Positive reinforcement like all other theories has contradicting theories and/or refuting evidence. Tom asks his mother, “Is dat your talker” which his mother then replies with “my talker? Yeah (.) that’s a tape recorder” congratulating his heuristic understanding of what the tape recorder does. The use of the positive participle “yeah” however, may confuse the child into thinking that what he has said is correct blurring the fact that it is a correction to the standard noun ‘tape recorder’ rather than simply a synonym for ‘talker’. Introducing the idea that perhaps reinforcement may not be the most effective way to progress the child’s understanding of language. Unlike previous theories about imitation, reinforcement and the contradicting idea that nature plays a larger role, there are other arguably more important ways of learning. Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist introduced the idea that for children to actively learn language the role of social interaction alone is not enough. Together, Vygotsky and Bruner developed the concept of scaffolding whereby caregivers provide language strategies for learners that they can then use independently when the caregiver isn’t present. This seems like a more appropriate tool for children’s language acquisition, as the child does not then become reliant upon the caregiver always being there to correct their mistakes. 

It is clear that within the transcript and CLA that imitation and reinforcement play and important role although arguably they are not the most crucial tools and can be used alone. By looking at the transcript alone we cannot make any conclusions about these methods as we cannot see whether they have been effective or not in the future, we also cannot extrapolate the findings to every child as it is likely that everyone prefers to learn in different ways.