IMPROVING THE ORAL ENGLISH THROUGH IMITAION

By

Hongyang Jiang

A Thesis

Submitted to the Faculty of Foreign Languages

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of

Bachelor of Arts in the English Language and Literature

Supervisor: Zijun Huang

College of Modern Economics and Management of

Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics

May 2012
 Contents
Acknowledgements ··············································································· i
Abstract ·········································································································· ii
摘 要·······························································································iii
1. Introduction ·····················································································1
2. Imitation and the Implementation of Imitative Process ···································1
2.1 What is “Imitation”? ·······································································2
2.1.1 The Concept of Imitation ·························································2
2.1.2 Conversion from Skill to Ability ················································3
2.2 Feasibility of the Implementation of Imitative Process ·······························4
2.2.1 Theoretical Feasibility ······························································4
2.2.2 Feasibility in Reality ································································5
3. Improving the Oral English through Imitation ············································6
3.1 Improvement of Oral English Elements ················································7
3.1.1 Pronunciation Improvement through Imitation ································7
3.1.2 Intonation Improvement through Imitation ····································8
3.1.3 Language Style Improvement through Imitation ······························9
3.2 Improvement in Different Imitative Period ·········································· 10
3.2.1 Early Period ········································································ 10
3.2.2 Interim Period ····································································· 11
3.2.3 Later Period ········································································ 12
4. Maximizing the Beneficial Effects of Imitation ·········································· 13
4.1 Some Limits of Imitation ······························································· 13
4.2 Maximizing the Beneficial Effects of Imitation ····································· 14
5. Conclusion ···················································································· 14
References ························································································ 16
 Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me during the writing of
this thesis. I gratefully acknowledge the help of my supervisor, Ms. Zijun Huang, who has
offered me valuable suggestions in the academic studies. In the preparation of the
thesis， she has spent much time reading through each draft and provided me with
inspiring advice. Without her patient instruction, insightful criticism and expert guidance,
the completion of this thesis would not have been possible.
I also owe a special debt of gratitude to all the teachers of Faculty of Foreign
Languages, from whose devoted teaching and enlightening lectures I have benefited a lot
and academically prepared for the thesis.
I suppose finally to express my gratitude to my beloved parents who have always
been helping me out of difficulties and supporting without a word of complaint.
 Abstract

It has long been recognized by Psycholinguistics and Cognitive Linguistics that

imitation is not the only way of second language acquisition. Its disadvantages tend to be
more and more obvious considering the further study of a target language, so it has
always been widely criticized.
However, there is no denying the fact that imitation is an easy and effective way to
practice the spoken English. Pronunciation, intonation, grammatical application and
language style, all theses factors would be improved dramatically if the learners use this
method properly.
Basing the above arguments on the theory of behaviorism which emphasizes the
positive external stimulation to learners, and the theory of Meme which stresses the
successful duplication and transmission of standard oral expression, the writer attempts to
prove that imitation is an effective way of oral English improvement, and offer some
advice on how to use imitation properly during the spoken English improvement process.

Key words: Imitation; Improvement; Oral English;

 摘要

心理语言学和认知语言学界对于模仿行为，早已达成一种共识，普遍认为，模
仿并不是二语习得的必由之路。对目的语的学习愈加深入，它的缺陷也就愈加显现
出来。因此，模仿行为一直饱受争议。
但不可否认的是, 提起英语口语练习，模仿确实是一种简单而且行之有效的方
法。学习者在口语学习过程中，如果对模仿的运用能够恰如其分，那么他的语音、
语调、语法运用，还有语言风格，都将获得巨大的改善。
行为主义理论强调外界刺激对于学习者的影响，而模因理论侧重成功的模仿、
复制与传播。基于这两点，作者尝试通过本研究，来探讨如何才能恰当地利用模仿
来改善英语口语。

关键词： 模仿 改善 英语口语
 IMPROVING THE ORAL ENGLISH THROUGH IMITAION

1. Introduction
Imitation plays an important role in the early period of second language acquisition.
It is one of the most effective and easiest ways to improve the oral English in a non-target
language circumstances. The present study attempts to figure out how to use imitation
properly during the spoken English improvement process.
The thesis is composed of five parts. Part one is introduction and it is an overview
of the whole thesis. The second part involves the concept of imitation and feasibility of
imitation. It minutely gives the reason why imitation can be applied to the process of oral
English improvement. Both theoretical supports and actual feasibilities are offered. The
third part is the main body of this thesis. Focusing on how to take the advantage of
imitation to improve the oral English, it explores from the pronunciation, intonation and
language style aspects and three learning periods. In this part, some beneficial effects of
imitation on oral English improvement are also discussed. In part four, some drawbacks
of imitation during the oral English learning process are exposed, but that is not the point.
The point is to tell the reasonable factors of imitation and figure out how to maximize the
beneficial effects of it. In conclusion part, the writer draws a natural conclusion which
contains the major findings of the study, the limitations of the research and suggestions
for future study.

2. Imitation and the Implementation of Imitative Process

Although imitation is an easy and effective way to practice the oral English,
imitation itself is a complex psychological activity and process. Its implementation in the
field of language study also needs some theoretical support and actual preconditions
which will make it feasible.
2.1 What is “Imitation”?
2.1.1 The Concept of Imitation
 “Imitation” is the very action of improving old skills or acquiring new skills
through observing and imitating the behavior of an individual. It is an important form of
social study and also a significant way of subtle interplay among people. (Wikipedia,
imitation) As the most efficient channel of communication, language is acquired, to a
large degree, by means of imitation.
On the language acquisition aspect, “imitation” can be understood like this: the
recurrence of a target language after cognizing all of its elements, including the
pronunciation, intonation, grammatical application, language style etc. (贾湘柳, 2006, 3)
From a theoretical point of view, language is not a natural production of universe. Its
existence and development have to take the effective inheritance as prerequisite, and the
key point of inheritance is imitation, so nothing about language can be talked without the
imitative behavior. Though imitation is constantly attacked as the rising tendency of
Cognitive Linguistics, it still remains a significant position in the main stream of foreign
language teaching academia. No matter what theories they are, behaviorism, social
learning theory or Memetic, all of them have always shared a common essence: language
is a kind of skill and habit, and the formation of such a skill and habit is based on nothing
else than a large quantity of repeated practice and imitation.
There is no exception to English. As an important part of English learning, oral
English learning can also employ the imitation method. Imitation in oral English learning
process does not mean to imitate any Chinese teacher who teaches English because none
of them is native, and their technique and means of pronunciation, or their oral English, as
a whole, is hard to reach a real standard level. And it does not mean to imitate the
pronunciation of any single phonetic symbol or a word merely, but to imitate all of the
elements of the target language constantly, including the stress, tone, intonation,
grammatical application, contextual relation, language styles etc. Therefore, the real
imitation of oral English is a process of self-improvement by choosing appropriate objects
and materials according to the individual problems.
2.1.2 Conversion from Skill to Ability
If imitation only keeps a shallow level in sense of mechanical repetition, such kind
of imitation can be regarded as a skill. By comparison, there is a huge gap between it and
Cognitive Linguistics. It bases little on cognitive process, and that is why imitation is
constantly attacked as the rising tendency of Cognitive Science.
Oral English learners usually tend to imitate someone’s locution when he obtains
certain perceptual cognition of English and the knowledge of phonetics. For instance,
many colloquial words and phrases in English movies are copied frequently by Chinese
students with their own style. Sometimes mistakes are inevitable, English learners tend to
add “ed” to any verbs after he gets the knowledge of past tense if he does not know the
right past tense of that verb. So errors, like “puted”, “cuted”, would appear. This
phenomenon is called “over generalization” in second language acquisition. It is not
difficult to find that all of these have countless ties with imitation. And this imitation is
getting closer to the ability in sense of Psycholinguistics and Cognitive Linguistics. The
noticeable point is that it contents the element of creativity.
If colloquial words and phrases imitation are just getting closer to the “ability” in
sense of Cognition, the language style imitation and complete sentence imitation will be
the real ability in sense of that. Carroll even called later imitations “senior imitations”
considering that they have become a kind of creativity rather than the mechanical
repetition skills. We all know that language acquisition is completely different from" the
process of checking up a dictionary”, no one is able to record all of the oral expressions in
his heart and check them up when it is necessary. On the contrary, the achievements of
English acquisition are that learners could generate countless expressions according to a
certain amount of oral expressions they have input. This is one of the design features of
language—creativity. English learners would also form their own language styles and
unique ways of expression after a long term of imitation. Actually, imitation is
experiencing a conversion from a simple skill to a creative capability in this process.
Therefore, imitation is a method that is worth trying in oral English improvement process.
2.2 Feasibility of the Implementation of Imitative Process
2.2.1 Theoretical Feasibility
The beneficial effects of imitation on language learning were firstly discussed in
1950s’ because of behaviorism’s coming into being. The theory of imitation was founded
by an American psychiatrist, Watson, at the background of behaviorism. He assimilated
achievements of Ivan Pavlov’s conditioned reflexology and believed that human
behaviors are acquired but not be born with. Everyone’s behavior pattern largely depends
on his surroundings, whether it is right or wrong, can be obtained or eliminated by
imitation, and can be changed or improved as well.
So does the language. From the oral English learning point of view, behaviorism
focuses on the behavior of learners. It holds that behavior is the reflex of external
stimulations. The oral English improvement process is the very result of reflex to new or
right, even more standard pronunciation, intonation, grammatical application or language
styles. In general, it is a formation or strengthening process of the appropriate language
using behavior through imitation. In such a case, beneficial effects of imitation are clear.
It makes the reflex to standard target language more efficient and easier to handle. That is
why imitation is widely used in the oral English learning period.
Being different from Behaviorism, Memetics does not emphasize the external
stimulation, it focuses on imitation itself. It was founded by Richard Dawkins basing on
Darwin’s evolutionism in 1976. Memetics tries to explain the cultural evolution, and later
is widely used in many fields. “Any information that is able to be successfully copied
through imitation can be called Meme.” (Blackmore. S. 1999, 27) Meme is the gene of a
culture, and its existence largely depends on imitation, duplication and transmission.
There is no doubt that imitation is the kernel.
Language is the carrier of Meme. In other words, it would be possible that any part
of language, words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs, will become the Meme if it can be
successfully copied through imitation. Imitation is one of the most efficient ways of oral
English learning, theoretically, it applies Memetics. Bad pronunciation, intonation,
grammatical application and language style are like bad genes, and good of them are like
good ones, so the key point of oral English improvement is to choose a good gene to
imitate.
2.2.2 Feasibility in Reality
Besides the theoretical support, imitation has its feasibility in reality. By
comparison, the beneficial effects of imitation are more immediate and remarkable than
the other methods in actual teaching process, so it still keeps a significant position in the
main stream of second language teaching academia in spite of the constant attack from
cognitive science. It strength presents as follows:
Firstly, imitation would reduce the psychological pressure of oral English learners.
As we all know, most of Chinese students are afraid of speaking in front of others. One
reason is that they have already known their pronunciation errors and their broken
English level, and another is that they are worried about being the laughingstock of others.
This leads to a vicious circle, many learners are afraid of speaking even though they are
eager to improve their oral English. Naturally, psychological pressure is also brought to
them more or less. Imitation is a learning activity which can be carried out completely
alone, psychological pressure will be no longer a problem without a third person’s
participation.
Secondly, various kinds of imitation materials offer learners a wide choice. Oral
English learners can choose some materials which they are interested in with the teacher’s
help and then imitate them. These materials will give learners a model and an orientation.
What the learners need to do is to correct their errors in pronunciation, intonation,
grammatical application and language style according to the materials. Learners can also
make a contrast between their own voice and the original one, and improve them. This
will make sure that the learning orientation is always right and learners’ oral English level
will get closer to the standard one.
Lastly, imitation is a completely individual behavior. There is no restriction on time,
space, surroundings and partners. Learners can choose any content and form of practice
or training at any place and any time, so implementation of oral English learning is more
flexible and efficient.
All of what have been discussed above offers a detail analysis for the feasibility of
imitation. So this will make sure a good implementation of it during the oral English
learning process.

3. Improving the Oral English through Imitation

Improving the pronunciation, intonation, and language style through imitation can
not only adjust or correct the errors existing in learners’ mind, but also help them choose a
most appropriate expressive way according to the context through a scene recurrence. In
addition, a large quantity of imitation would enrich the language materials that are saved
in learners’ mind, so it will be possible that they can activate and apply theses materials
immediately. When an appropriate imitation is highly appreciated by others in the
communication process, learners’ confidence will be boosted and the motivation of oral
English learning will be strengthened. In such a case, a virtuous circle forms.
3.1 Improvement of Oral English Elements
3.1.1 Pronunciation Improvement through Imitation
When it comes to imitation, what brings to the top of head is pronunciation. A good
pronunciation will impress others and make others admire the learners, but a bad one will
mislead others to give the learners unfair judgments even though they have a really good
knowledge of written English. What makes it worse is that a terrible pronunciation will
bring learners some troubles to listening improvement. Therefore, learners need to master
every phonetic symbol before the systematical study of English.
As behaviorism emphasizes, external factors influence the learners greatly, so
material choosing is an essential part of imitation. Learners have to choose some native
and authentic materials before they step forward, because it is hard to change any longer
after learners get used to a certain way of pronunciation.
Listening is the first step of phonetic imitation. After a long term study of English
teaching, many scholars find that the errors of pronunciation are the result of being lack
of listening and inappropriate imitation. In the early period of imitation, learners should
concentrate on the letters, phonetic symbols and single words. In this period, listening to
the materials carefully and imitating the pronunciation in mind, and distinguishing the
subtle changes of some sound-similar phonetics are necessary procedures. Actual
imitation begins with slow speed and an accurate way of pronunciation. Slow speed is
good for learners to ensure their accuracy of pronunciation and the vocal organs’ position
when they pronounce. Learners should also pay attention to their shape of mouth and
make full use of their oral cavity muscle. The mode of mouth movement when we speak
Chinese is different from the one when we speak English, so it is uneasy for Chinese
learners to change the habit of using their vocal organs. This will lead to the inaccuracy of
English pronunciation. Therefore, learners have to imitate the letters, phonetic symbols,
single words and sentences loudly and exaggeratedly in order to train their vocal organs
and adapt themselves to the mode of English pronunciation.
Oral English learners should always keep a high sensitivity about their phonetic
problems and be ready for correct them at any time. Once they own the consciousness,
their enthusiasm of study will be activated, and imitation will not be a boring and tedium
process. Imitation with consciousness and purpose will keep the effectiveness of it. If the
learners would like to get some achievements in English pronunciation, they have to feel
imitation with their heart. It is obvious that excellent oral English can not be achieved in a
short period of imitation, but repeating and insistent imitation will help the learners
improve their pronunciation to a large degree. After a long period of imitation, learners
tend to accept the standard pronunciation automatically and regard it as a reference to
measure their own level. From this point of view, learners are improving their
pronunciation at every moment.
3.1.2 Intonation Improvement through Imitation
Intonation involves the occurrence of recurring fall-rise patterns, each of which is
used with a set of relatively consistent meaning, either on single words or on groups of
words of varying length (Cruttenden, 1997, 7). A difference in tone changes the meaning
of a group of words and, when this happens, it is called a difference in intonation.
Different intonation leads to different conversational results, so appropriate intonation
determines a successful communication effect. The rising tone at the end of an utterance
in English is often used for asking yes-no questions and showing politeness or surprise,
whereas the falling tone sometimes leads to rudeness and abruptness. However, there are
many other ways of expression in English, and they are hard to be mastered for Chinese
students because of the language surroundings. Most of oral English learners have no idea
about the rise or fall patterns in English or neglect the importance of it at the early period
of learning.
Imitation is the simplest and most effective way to learn appropriate intonation.
After the imitation of words, words groups, intonative imitation will be easier. Learners
should focus on the phrases, sentences in this period. Intonation helps us express our
happiness, sadness, curiousness, worry, anger and many other emotions, but it is strange
for most of Chinese students. In order to get a clear idea about the correct intonation,
learners had better watch the original English movies or listen to the celebrities’ speeches.
Original monologue or oration is a kind of positive stimulation according to Behaviorism.
Imitating the monologue in movies or oration in speeches is the very action of taking the
advantage of this positive stimulation. It is different from the general imitation but it
shows its own strengthens. Frequent change of intonation is usually used in order to
maximize the artistic effect in the above two contexts, it makes the monologue or oration
so touching that learners tend to involve themselves into the contexts. In such a case, they
can feel the change of intonation instantly, accept a complete strange intonation easily and
acquire it quickly. In addition, an actual language context and an interesting story or
speech will also bring learners the power to imitate.
3.1.3 Language Style Improvement through Imitation
After getting a good knowledge of pronunciation and intonation, learners tend to
enrich their language content. They attempt to make their English more native and
acceptable. Therefore, language style is a key point to be considered. Chinese students get
used to the Chinese thinking model, so improvement of English speaking style needs to
spend a long period of time. English is different from Chinese, and learners can not shape
their English speaking style according to Chinese.
There is a possibility under the theory of Behaviorism: strong external stimulation
will even change somebody’s old habits that have rooted in mind for so long. Constant
imitation of various kinds of original English materials will break the language
fossilization which uses the target language based on mother tongue’s principle. It will
correct the following errors: sentences that are made of English words but Chinese words
orders; avoidance that tries to avoid using the sentence structures which does not exist in
Chinese. For instance, many Chinese students prefer to say “that’s my building, and I live
there” than “that’s my building where I live”. Actually, a native speaker tends to use the
latter sentence which is closer to their expressive behavior. Most of English learners will
face the problem of transfer at a certain stage, but original English materials imitation will
point out the way of what real English is, and reduce the probability of negative transfer.
A long term and various kinds of original English imitation will largely enrich the content
of a learner’s expression and make their language behavior closer to a native speaker.
Sometimes learners even form their appropriate English speaking style because of the
long term imitation of certain materials. For instance, if a leaner is enthusiastic about
imitating the speeches of a politician, his speaking style will be inevitably influenced by
this politician. Though it is not the learner’s own style, it has already broken away from
the mother tongue style. This is a significant step to the road of becoming an excellent
English learner and speaker.
3.2 Improvement in Different Imitative Periods
3.2.1 Early Period
The early period of imitation is a period of assimilation. According to the theory of
Meme, only after the right or standard English form successfully affects the individual,
will it get into the learners’ memory and assimilate those inappropriate forms, in reverse,
if the oral English learners want to successfully imitate the native English, they have to
get in touch with the target language adequately and create as much conditions as possible
for assimilation.
Assimilation happens with two conditions: First, learners should reconsider the
problems of their own and find out the points which are worthy of learning and correcting,
and then get in touch with the certain materials. In the actual learning process, learners
had better imitate some native, pictorial and affective materials, such as BBC, CNN, and
monologue in movies and TV series. In the early period of imitation, pronunciation,
intonation and word choosing are emphasized, so learners had better pay more attention
to these things. Second, those materials imitated have to be easily understood and
accepted by the learners, so the learners can think over and imitate the materials
independently, and even make some creation.
3.2.2 Interim Period
Interim period of imitation is a period of saving abundant materials in mind.
Abundant materials in mind will conduct learners to experience the language mode and
thinking mode of a native speaker. As the carrier of a Meme, the longer language
materials stay in an individual’s mind, the stronger their effects will be. Meanwhile,
everyone knows that our memory has a strong selectivity, only a few memes will be saved
among a large quantity of memory Meme. So according to those features, learners had
better choose some materials or topics which are full of interest, and will activate the
learners’ memorizing desire, such as entertainments, love stories, jobs, careers, and
travels. Meanwhile, repetitive practice based on a good understanding of the material will
make the memes stay longer in the learners’ mind. In such a case, more sentence
structures, grammatical structures, colloquia words and language styles can be easily
memorized by the learners. In addition, rich knowledge of context will be obtained during
the imitation process. All of those will help oral English learners shorten their code time
from mother tongue to the target language, and avoid the negative transfer to a large
degree.
Imitation plays a significant role in the process of materials storage and input of a
language. But in the actual education process, most of teachers and students tend to over
emphasize the importance of communication skills and neglect the beneficial effects of
imitation. It seems that only analytical and heuristic teaching can present the depth, level
and quality of teaching. Actually, we all ignore a simple fact that listening, speaking,
reading, writing, and translation abilities are still and will be the essential English abilities
forever. Having good background knowledge of a classical work or imitating and
memorizing some words, phrases, and paragraphs of the classical work, which do you
think is more effective to improve your oral English? Obviously, the latter is more direct
and effective.
3.2.3 Later Period
The later period of imitation is a period of expression and creation. Learners imitate
various kinds of materials, but not all of what they have learned is useful. Language
memes are duplicated and transmitted, and some with strong vitality are saved and
become popular. In this period, learners should not only focus on imitation itself, but find
as many opportunities as possible to practice their oral English, and this is the so called
expression. Language memes have to be picked up from the learners’ memory and then
enter the mind of others when a conversation happens. After getting a good knowledge of
stress, rhythm and intonation, learners can try to use theses language memes in different
contexts because imitation alone will not ensure the effects of actual use. Learners had
better put all of what they learned into practice, and test them. This is a good way to
receive a better result.
Creation is an inexorable trend of free expression. Creation here is not to create new
English words, phrases, sentences or new language using behaviors, but to form a
language style of your own. Most of imitators are lack of their own speaking styles
because they spend much time imitating others, and their speaking style is what lies in the
imitated materials’ style. Luckily, learners have obtained a lot from the previous imitation
processes. They are capable of freely presenting their own ideas and have a good
knowledge of pronunciation and intonation; they have their own understandings of the
materials, and all of those are the preconditions of speaking style formation. In the later
period of imitation, it is possible that an oral English learner will form his own English
speaking style, and this style can be regarded as the combination of the imitated style and
learner’s own understandings and cognition. So imitation is a necessary step on the way
to creation.

4. Maximizing the Beneficial Effects of Imitation

Imitation can contribute a lot to the oral English improvement. It is still widely
acknowledged in today’s oral English teaching academia because of its strong operability
and immediate effect. However, it is facing a dilemma under the continuous attack from
many scholars. The rising tendency of cognitive science exposes its drawbacks gradually.
4.1 Some Limitations of Imitation
The mode of imitation is a process of “stimulation - reflex- strengthening”. Learners
will be the actual constitutors and executors in the whole process, so this will result in
their incapability of getting an objective and fair evaluation to themselves. Cognitive
science and modern teaching methods pay more attention to exploration. They advocates
that learners had better find the problems in their real life and then improve themselves
through analyzing these problems. However, materials in oral English learning process
have some fixed forms, and this will set a lot of restrictions to problem exploration. And
imitation happens in an unreal world, so some actual problems are still hard to be handled
in a real context.
Imitation emphasizes the external factors but neglects the inner will. This would lead
to a lack of motivation considering the further plans of a person’s study. Cognitive science
and modern teaching methods require more humanism which emphasizes the learners’
emotional needs. Obviously, over use of imitation would not bring learners consistent and
permanent power of study, instead, it will depress the learners’ emotion, lower their
critical ability, and increase their dependence on a certain mode. Purposes of oral English
learning are not only to improve the pronunciation, intonation and language style simply,
but to obtain a good knowledge of this language and a good understanding of this culture.
So over use of imitation it is not a good thing.
4.2 Maximizing the Beneficial Effects of Imitation
Nothing is without its shortcomings, and imitation has never been a perfect way of
oral English learning. It exists in this field because of its reasonable factors. Everybody
knows the saying “reject the dross and assimilate the essence.” We should not concentrate
on the drawbacks of imitation only, but find a way to take full advantages of it during the
process of oral English learning.
Imitation gives us a solution when we face various kinds of methods to improve oral
English improvement. The real purpose of it is to shape a new style of our own. The
targets of imitation can be found everywhere, we will integrate the merits of others’, and
make our own decisions about what we will learn and take from them, that is the saying
“reject the dross and assimilate the essence.”
Imitation is not simple mechanical repetition, but a process of perceptual knowledge
accumulation. Gathering the imitation experience and combining it with cognitive science,
oral English learners will find a new world in their learning process.

5. Conclusion
Learning method is a very important factor which determines the oral English
learning efficiency in a non-target language environment. Indeed, imitation is not the only
way of oral English learning, but its beneficial effects of improving the pronunciation,
intonation, and language style are obvious. It helps the learners a lot in different oral
English learning periods.
Imitation is now challenged by the rising tendency of cognitive science, but it is still
widely acknowledged in today’s oral English teaching academia because it has its
reasonable elements. Its strong operability and immediate effects make it still a popular
method of oral English learning. Imitation is needed, but we should stress the effective
application of it in different learning periods and find ways to maximize the beneficial
effects.
This study presents how to improve the oral English through imitation and some
beneficial effects of imitation. It attempts to deliver readers a massage that imitation is an
easy and effective way which is worthy of trying when they want to improve their oral
English. However, some limitations do exist in this paper. Because of the limited theories
and scarce study on imitation as a means of oral English improvement, and the writer’s
subjective preference, many problems have been discussed only according to the writer’s
own experience. Hence, the future study should be done based on more effluent theories
and examples.
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