Imitation and reinforcement are the most crucial tools for child language acquisition

Imitation and reinforcement is the process of children learning language through listening to adults use it and copying it. The two types of reinforcement are positive and negative. Positive reinforcement is when a child will want to repeat the behaviour because of a reward or positive feedback from the adult. Negative reinforcement is not a punishment but it is about repeating the behaviour to avoid a response. This idea comes from Skinner's Operant Conditioning theory which is a key theory in child language acquisition (CLA). This can be important for children in learning language but it may not be the most import factor. 

There are examples of Skinner's positive reinforcement in the text. This is where Tom says, "it make noises" and his mother replies, "it makes noises". This is her echoing and correcting him. Positive reinforcement can occur just through adults responses which is happening here. This form of scaffolding she is giving him can relate to Vygotsky's theory. This in particular is about Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) which is the distance between what a child can do independently and what their potential is. The ZPD is what language the child can use with support from the caregiver. However, Piaget has criticised this theory of learning through others support as he believes they have to reach certain stages and this is universal. According to Piaget, thought comes before language. This contradicts the idea that imitation and reinforcement is the most crucial tool for CLA.

Another example of reinforcement in the text is when Tom says the declarative utterance, "the dad bike" and his mother echoes "dad's bike". This is reformulating what Tom said incorrectly. Tom's utterance could be over-generalisation because his mother goes on to say, "you're not on dad's bike (.) you're on your bike". Although Tom's mother is correcting him, this is in a positive way as she does not use the interjection "no". This means that Tom is not being punished so he will not fear being scalded for the incorrect use in the future. Tom has learnt from his mother recasting the possessive utterance as he uses the correct phrase later on in the transcript. He tries to remember the possessive inflection by saying "the dad (.) dad's bike (.) dad's bike mum (.) dad's bike". This can relate to Vygotsky's theory as he is seeking knowledge through the support of the caregiver. 

There is an example in the text of negative reinforcement, however, this is for behaviour rather than language. The mother says, "don't touch (.) don't touch" about Tom noticing the tape recorder. Tom replies "no (.) can I put it on" and the mother answers "in a minute". This shows that although positive and negative reinforcement can be used for language, it is most likely to be used in relation to behaviour. Skinner's Operant Conditioning theory is in relation to behaviourism and it does not take in to account factors such as genetics. It assumes that without reinforcement, it will not be learned. This could mean that imitation and reinforcement can not be the main factor in CLA as not all language use by children needs to be reinforced. Chomsky's theory critcises Skinner's Operant Conditioning. The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) by Chomsky is the idea that children learn language by listening to utterances around them and repeating them. This does not require any type of reinforcement but does involve imitation. However, this can lead to over-generalisation which may be why reinforcement is necessary. 

Overall, imitation and reinforcement may not be the most crucial tool for CLA but does have a big impact on how children learn language. In the transcript, there are clear examples of imitation and either positive or negative reinforcement used and you can see that Tom has learnt some language this way. Yet, not all of the reinforcement is about language. Skinner and Vygotsky are clear advocates of this way of learning but Piaget and Chomsky offer an alternative view which shows that there is more than one way for children to learn language. Although the transcript does not offer much support for these ideas, it does not mean that imitation and reinforcement are the most significant ways for children to learn language.