Thirty classrooms (10 preschool, 10 kindergarten, and 10 first grade) in New York and Chicago were observed in this study of teacher and student verbal behavior. The study investigated the extent to which pupils imitate a rewarding teacher's verbal style when talking among themselves. From the 10 classes at each grade level, the six that showed the highest frequency of teacher reinforcing verbal behavior were chosen for further observation and designated the "rewarding teacher" group. The final sample of 72 students was derived by randomly selecting four students (two boys; two girls) from each of the classes. Pupil verbal statements were scored using five scales of imitative behavior developed from the Observation Schedule and Record 4V (OScAR) protocols. The data were analyzed using a 2x3 factorial design (sex x grade levels). The records of teacher and pupil verbal characteristics were made near the end of the school year by trained observers who had spent adaptive time in the classrooms before collecting any data. The major findings were that girls imitated more than boys and that imitation increased with grade level. It is felt that these findings are important in demonstrating the usefulness of the OScAR technique for measuring constructs such as imitation and for measuring pupil as well as teacher behavior. (MH)