Mother Tongue and Language Use in Family and Society

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Mother Tongue and Language Use in Family and Society

“Mother Tongue”, by Amy Tan and “Language Use in Family and Society”, by Lee Thomas and Linh Cao, are two examples of how language is important in communication, even if the members of the family may be speaking a language other than English. Language is important to these two authors and it is what brings each family member closer to another, however, they approach the language differently. For Tan and her mother, language is very special. It is what brings them closer and is something that is unique for the both of them. Thomas and Cao also believe language has power to strengthen relations, but for Cao’s family, language is keeping them apart and not as close as they thought it should be. Even though Tan and Thomas/Cao have similar ideas about language being a major role in a family, these three authors experienced language spoken in a house differently.

“Mother Tongue” introduces the idea that language can be understood, even if it isn’t the standard English spoken. Tan’s mother is Chinese, so her mother’s speech is not really up to par like most other Americans. With her speech not being fully clear, the other people tend to mistreat her. For example, a stockbroker in New York was being rude just because of her “limited” language. As for Tan, she is a writer, and can speak English really well around others, but when she is with her mother her language changes. She speaks like her mother so her mother will not feel uncomfortable, and when they do speak “broken language”, Tan is not ashamed of it anymore, where she use to be long time ago. Tan is not ashamed because she feels this type of language is what brings her and her mother c...

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...h the language she and her mother speak is not all standard English, they are still able to understand one another. As for Thomas and Cao, they believe language spoken other than English in a family can be frustrating and confusing. Plus, in order to improve the communication, they believe “It is important to consider the dynamics of this transition as we design English language programs…the process of this language acquisition and much less about language shift and loss” (Thomas and Cao, 69). What they are saying is that language communication is important so they want to improve communication but still don’t want to lose their cultural language as well. In conclusion, language can be special for some families and for other families it can be a headache. But these two different families both believe communication is what can potentially keep them close together.

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