Linguicism “I want Billy to be good student. He not no what to do. We help him. You call us. Thank you.” An email received from a Asian-American parent at Ranch View Elementary School in Naperville, Illinois, who was unsure of how to support her child’s math assignment but seems to be requesting help from the classroom teacher. Not only do teachers receive emails like this from parents, but they also have students in their class who speak similar to this email. The way one speaks is usually one’s first impression of another person. If a person doesn’t speak like others in that area or cultural group, then people can make negative assumptions about a person’s intelligence or socioeconomic status. Imagine feeling as if whenever speaking …show more content…
This issue that has been going on for decades now is called Linguicism. Linguicism is the discrimination against someone because of how he how he or she speaks or writes. I believe that Linguicism is having an effect on children in our schools such as low self-esteem and self-image, low motivation to succeed, and low high school graduation rates. Primarily, language usage is the main tool for learning and expressing one’s ideas or beliefs. Our language is what composes our existence and has been with from the day we were born. In the book, The Skin That We Speak by Joanne Kilcour Dowdy, the author depicts an experience as a young child when she was living in Trindidad. She was speaking the “Mother Language” or the Standard Language. She was instructed by her mother to not speak her own language out in public. So one day she was playing ball and hit the ball over a fence and declared that she hit it “over there”. Here was a time when she felt good about her physical achievement but instead her peers began laughing at her pronunciation of these words. This had a lasting effect on this author’s self-esteem and her place in society. She continues to talk about how the issue is really about getting today’s world to accept others to have freedom to go back and forth from one’s home language to the …show more content…
I believe students and teachers need to be aware and encouraged to respect other languages of other cultures. It is our jobs as teachers to allow students to celebrate and embrace their differences. I believe that there should be a variety of supports in place for children with limited English language. It is my responsibility as a teacher to ensure that all my students’ needs are being met. Children with limited English language may need word banks with photos/illustrations for specific units of study to comprehend topics, students should be provided with texts in their spoken language to encourage a deeper understanding of the text and be able to question at a deeper level in their spoken language. I also believe that parents should speak their native language at home so the student is hearing a fluent language and ideas are clearer at home. Students would not be limited in their level of understanding due to a language barrier at home. The school or my classroom would be the place where we would find ways to support the student in the standard
Lisa Delpit’s book, “The Skin We Speak”, talked about language and culture, and how it relates to the classroom. How we speak gives people hits as to where we are from and what culture we are a part of. Unfortunately there are also negative stereotypes that come with certain language variations. There is an “unfounded belief that the language of low income groups in rural or urban industrial areas is somehow structurally “impoverished” or “simpler” than Standard English” (Delpit 71). The United States is made of people from various cultures and speak many different variations of languages. As teachers we must be aware of some of the prejudices we may have about language and culture.
Language is an important part of who we are. It influences the way we think and behave on a great scale. However, sometimes it is forced upon us to go in different directions just so we can physically and mentally feel as if we belong to the society in which we live in. Just as we see in Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” and Richard Rodriguez’s “A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”, both authors faced some challenges along the way by coping with two different languages, while still trying to achieve the social position which they desired.
Under Sue’s theme of “Pathologizing cultural values/communication styles” (76), a form of microaggression develops. Asians are typically taught to listen rather than speak. The school system typically emphasizes participation to speak in class which may be more intimidating for Asians due to their background and important of silence. Participants of Sue’s study “felt forced to conform to Western norms and values (‘talking more’) when such behaviour violated their cultural upbringing” (77). In other words, Asians participants felt uncomfortable trying to fit the White standard of talking and participating in
The essay “Abstract Inquiry and the Patrolling of Black/White Borders through Linguistic Stylization” by John Taggart Clark states that the teacher who teaches from the point of view of the majority culture and does not include the student’s minority culture point of view creates cultural and political borders between themselves and their students that discourage students to learn the language of the cultural majority that they need in order to achieve goals in the society.
“Because we wanted our the messages to be published…” (Jordan 371) It was there, in that line, that I came to the initial belief that the best decision for June Jordan’s students was to write the opening, group paragraph to Newsday and the Brooklyn police in Standard English. I quickly wrote down my belief, for I wanted to remember it as I read on. I knew that whatever was to come could be powerful enough to sway me, or raw enough to leave me lost. Before I delve in to my final belief on the ultimate choice made by the students of June Jordan’s class, “The Art of Black English”, I must justify the reasoning behind paying tribute to Reggie Jordan in the “language of [his] killers” (Jordan 372) and in the tongue of his oppressors.
My mom, with her camera in her hand, was so excited that she lined up at the front of the church one hour earlier to get a good seat at one of the church pews. Dressed in a shepherd costume, I sang the opening to the musical piece “Will You Be Ready for the Light” by Mark Patterson. On my way back to my seat, I experienced linguistic discrimination, the judgment about a person’s intelligence, social status, or character based on his or her use of language, for the first time in my life. My fourth grade classmate at the time probably did not even know that what she said was a form of discrimination and microaggression. To be honest, I also had no clue about what F.O.B. meant until I researched it in google and found that it meant “Fresh Off the Boat”, a phrase to describe the new immigrants who were not yet accustomed to the American
In the essay, “How To Tame A Wild Tongue”, by Gloria Anzaldua and the essay, Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan, the ignorance shown by many people is highlighted. Amy Tan’s essay focuses on how some people look down on others who do not speak English without an accent. Anzaldua’s essay focuses on how people do not have a broad view of language and often look down upon others who do not speak the language that they speak. Both of the essays address language, but the broader topic that they acknowledge is more important. The essays both acknowledge how humans feel uncomfortable around people that are different from them, and often demean others. People demean others due to people wanting to look more powerful by giving their views correctness while discrediting
In the United States of America we have become a large melting pot of ethnic and cultural peoples. Along with these peoples have come many different languages and alphabets. However the US has been seen as a mostly English speaking country. Yet many of this country's newcomers do not speak English. Adults and children alike come into the US speaking and writing only their native tongue. This poses a huge gap in communication. If the adults are unable to teach their children English, then it becomes the school districts' responsibility. However to make learning easier on the child, many school districts choose to teach the child in their native language, while they receive English lessons on the side.
In the United States, the Anglo community is oppressing people of color because of their language, culture, and believes. For many years the Anglo has mistreated color races because they are different, causing anger and not understanding how it feels to be biracial. Latinos identities are robbed by not being able to speak Spanish in school. Therefore, the community in America needs to come together to fight against oppression and injustice caused by the difference in language and culture to improve equality for a group of people, who have lived marginalized throughout the years.
In my opinion, people should be given the right to speak and read in any language that they wish. Although, it may benefit them to be knowledgeable in the speech that is being taught and spoken in the common country, everyone has their own cultural background and each has the right to be literate in the way that they desire. They were given the right to freedom of speech through the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights and therefore, have the right to speak in their own native language. Literacy plays a major role in the lives of humans today. It gives us the power to read, speak and write and is therefore a valuable asset to society and the development of its economy.
When I started teaching years ago, I worked with teachers that firmly believed that all instruction should be given in the target language. If students are to learn English, than English is what should be taught. The idea of supporting the student with their first language was considered not good teaching. There was no sign of bilingual books, because the purpose was to directly teach English. Thankfully, the misconception has become more obvious, and there is now more support for English language learners.
Any particular peer group in today's society has its own unique and custom variants on a language. These groups are identified by their distinct speech, and whatever is thought of their language is thought of them. Gloria Anzaldua in "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" wrote "Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity--I am my language." (34) She says that when she was a child, her teachers would get on to her and tell her that she needed to speak English or go back to Mexico (29). In her situation, people judged her from what they knew of the language she spoke before giving her an opportunity to identify herself. She said that language was her identity because few people could look past her language and see her as being something other than what the stereotypes made her appear to be. Instances like Anzaldua's make me believe that people look at language and many othe...
...on't help" for the communication between those ethnic groups who can't speak English well will lead to a serious problem (216). For example, "the testimony of crime victims who can't yet speak English might be prohibited in court"; "police officers and doctors might be left without interpreters to protect those who don't speak English"; or it would be very difficult for schools to communicate with students' parents (217).
...xpressing her Chinese culture. Mastering a second language allows her to articulate her and her mother’s thoughts; it is a foundation for her pride and a foundation to express herself. For Gloria Anzaldua, instead of choosing one language over the other, she chose a mix of the two and fights for it. She realized the value of her language when she lost it and now treasures it. The kind of Spanish she speaks is neither English nor Spanish, but both. It is overflowing with culture from Medieval Spain, France, Germany, etc., just from the origins of the words. It is her pride and a representation of herself, fighting and living. In conclusion, in addition to Lera Boroditsky’s article proving that the structure of language affects how we think, the articles by Eric Liu, Amy Tan, and Gloria Anzaldua show how language is a foundation for a person’s culture, pride, and self.
Throughout the history of schooling, there have been conflicts between students from different races. These problems occur during school time which negatively affect one's learning experience and social life. In today’s society, not everyone is accepting of different ethnicities and cultures they live around. In many cases, a student from the major ethnic group of a school is the one being racist to the minority group. The kids who are considered a minority have always struggled to mix in with the crowd and live a normal. They are usually viewed as different and get picked on for that by their peers. In a school environment, this should not be acceptable because schools are supposed to treat all students, no matter what race,