Imitation pedagogy: The ongoing debate

Imitation was one of the five teaching methods passed down from the Greeks and was, from antiquity down to the nineteenth century, highly respected among scholars and educators. However imitation has lost status as a viable pedagogy, and especially perhaps in the.field of composition studies. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the historical use of imitation, consider imitation's role in learning, present some of the concerns contemporary compositionists have with its use, compare past and current debates over imitation, and suggest a rationale for formal research and evaluation of the use of imitation pedagogy in the teaching of composition. The historical overview in chapter two demonstrates who or what was imitated and why. It also shows that imitation was seen as a necessary means of learning language, grammar, and style, and the primary way of internalizing method, organization, and rhetorical technique. Imitation's historical role in learning generally and its obvious role in learning to read and write initially discussed in chapter three raises questions as to its potential in learning formal composition. These are