... organism) and nurture (the effect on it of the environment surrounding the growing organism) however the proportions of each that are involved is still not agreed upon. The earliest theories of language were based on either learning theory or on the commonsense idea that language is learned by imitation. Imitation does have a part to play as children imitate sentences they hear and they learn to speak with the accent of their parents but imitation cannot account for the creative quality of the Childs language as children create sentences and forms of words that they have never heard, words like goed and digged (ibid). Skinners reinforcement theory (1957) cited by Bee (1998) argues that in addition to imitation parents shape language through systematic reinforcements but in fact parents according to Hart and Risley 1995 cited by Bee (1998) are remarkably forgiving of all sorts of peculiar constructions. They reinforce a Childs ...

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