The Grammar of Working and Middle Class Children Using Elicited Imitations

Abstract

The aim of this experiment was to investigate the processes involved in imitation, in particular whether or not the child s own grammatical system influences elicited imitations. The problem was studied using pre-school children of middle and working class origin. It was found that when asked to repeat back sentences with verb forms found to be used by children of their own social class, subjects imitated accurately, but when presented with those of the other social class the verb forms were altered to produce those with which they were familiar. This led to the conclusion that the child does filter imitations through his own grammatical productive system as proposed by Slobin and Welsh (1968).