Language Use in Family and in Society

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Language Use in Family and in Society

The magazine article “Language Use in Family and in Society,” published in the September 1999 issue of English Journal, written by Lee Thomas and Linh Cao, shows how language use can affect a family and the society. Both authors came together to write an article dealing with language in the home and in society, trying to reach a specific audience and purpose. The structure used was of both of the author’s styles and both authors used rhetorical appeals. Both authors wrote that having two or more languages in a family could cause separation and pain because the family looses the ability to communicate.

Lee Thomas is a linguistics teacher at the University of Nevada, Reno. He probably can speak at least one other language than English, if not more. He probably writes many articles dealing with language use. He cares about language use and its affects in the family and in the society. He knows what he is talking about probably from first hand experience. I am determining all of this because he is a linguistics teacher and he probably would not be writing this article if he did not speak another language other than English. Linh Cao is an English teacher at Sparks High School, Sparks, Nevada. She speaks four languages including English. Most of the time she uses English, except when around her parents and grandparents. She also cares about language use and its affects in the family and in the society. I am determining all of this because in the article her family is the one that is used for examples and because if she did not care about language use than she would not have written this article. The targeted audience is teachers and families, to help th...

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...ildren cannot talk to them. In the conclusion, the authors wrote that families feel frustrated, confused, and isolated. In the beginning, Linh Cao said, “…Because language and culture so separate us, placing us in our own worlds, both of which are filled with loneliness, loss, and great emotional and psychological pain.”

In conclusion, it can be said that families who speak many different languages in the home have problems communicating because of the generation gap in language. The parents and grandparents do not know how to communicate with their children because they have limited vocabulary in the language that their child mainly speaks. The society needs to take in the fact that not everyone has to be the same or talk the same as everyone else. The authors of the article “Language Use in Family and in Society” made this point very clear.

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