Codeswitching from English Essays

In “Mother Tongue,” Tan reflects on her various English’s she discovers herself to have throughout her many interactions. Specifically, her “language of intimacy”, her “broken English”, and her “perfect English”. Though these are all just variations of the same language, each one holds the relationship Tan has with said person. For instance, Tan only uses her “broken English”

Throughout the book The House on Mango Street, notably in the chapter “No Speak English”, the language barrier is clearly evident. Those who are unable to communicate adequately, or do not speak English at all, are forced to the lower levels of society. Mamacita, who moves to this country to be with her husband, becomes trapped in her apartment because she does not know how to speak English

Everyone has various styles of speaking and various ranges of vocabulary that they utilize depending upon with whom they speak. This concept, known as code switching, portrays an integral part of our lives in today’s society. The fact that different groups of people speak in different ways necessitates the use of code switching. One would not speak to a group of high school students in the manner that one would speak to a scholar, or speak to a prison inmate in the same regard that one would speak with the President of the United States. Speaking in standard American English and then in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), or Ebonics, portrays the most prominent use of code

To show this point the author’s write about Cao’s experiences with a language struggle between family members. This narration gives the reader a close up look at how language works in a family. Besides using narration she always uses a little cause and effect by sharing the results of having language separation. She gave three examples of conversational situations in her household. The languages Vietnamese, Hainanese, Mandarin, and English are used interchangeably. Looking at the dialogues in the article made the conversation seem broken because there were four languages being used. The first conversation is between Cao’s mom and one of her siblings, Tung. It has to do with Tung not wanting to eat the large amount of noodles Mom prepared for him. Then she asks about Tung’s homework and he is unable to explain it to her because they do not share a fluent language between them. In the article this selection was described as a “routinized interactive exchange” (Thomas & Cao 64). This means that the two of them were able to have small talk based on things like food. But they

Young instead, encourages dropping the term code switching and adopting code meshing which promotes “blendin two or mo dialects, languages, or rhetorical forms into one sentence, one utterance, one paper”(114). Young doesn’t want writers to feel as though they have to separate the way they speak at home from their academic language. Young also points out ways in which code meshing has already taken effect in tweets from Senator Chuck Grassley to President Obama and Chris Ann Cleland’s Washington Post interview (115). I believe that code meshing is an effective way to write because it makes it easier to get your point across when you’re not worrying about using large words to make your work look better. Code meshing also catches readers attention because they feel like they can relate to what the writer is

The Code Talkers had a role during World War II. First, the main role of the Code Talkers was to use their native language as their primary weapon in the war. In paragraph one, the text states, “The Code Talkers were warriors who used their native language as their primary weapon during World War II (WWII).” This shows that the Code Talkers were warriors who used their native language as their primary weapon. Also, they used their language to send thousands of secret messages that regarded the Japanese troops and that also regarded different battlefield tactics. This proved critical to the war’s overall outcome. Paragraph eight states, “They sent thousands of secret messages regarding the movements of Japanese troops, battlefield tactics, and other details that would prove critical to the war's ultimate outcome.” This shows that they Code Talkers would send secret messages to each other so they knew what the Japanese were doing and better battle tactics to use against them.

To a person who speaks only one tongue… language might be an immutable characteristic like skin color… However, the language a person who is multi-lingual elects to speak at a particular time is by definition a matter of choice. (Peterson, 1994, p. 369)

In “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, she opens the story by informing us that she speaks more than one language. She states that she is a writer and she is someone who has always loved language. Throughout the story she explains the different situations that she experience because of the way she talks such as when she has to translate for her mother on the phone and how she talks proper when she is giving a speech. She feels as if her mother’s English “limits” her perception of her. She also states that at one point she was ashamed of her mother’s English. On the other hand, her mother’s English is perfectly clear to her and she describes it as her mother tongue.

Indian code talkers are a group of bilingual Navajo speakers that were used to transfer messages during World War II. The Marine Corps recruited many of these Code Talkers to help them in the war. The Marines were so protective of the Code Talkers that if there was any danger of the Indians being captured for the Japanese to learn the code the Marines would have to kill the Code Talker. After the Navajo Code, also known as the Type One Codes, were created the Marine Corps started a Code Talking School. Along with learning the language they learned how to march in cadence, obey orders, and keep their quarters very clean. It was here that over four hundred Navajos were recruited as Code Talkers. The Code Talkers were from at least sixteen

From the beginning of the story, Jayanti shows signs of assimilation and acceptance, to become an American. Before reaching America, she promises to give herself a typical

For many immigrants, in America, language barrier is one of the many obstacles that they have to face. Ashima encountered this barrier when she was at the hospital for Gogol’s birth. “Patty smiles, a little too widely, and suddenly Ashima realizes her error, knows she should have said “fingers” and “toes.”” Ashima realized that she made a mistake. This hurts Ashima because she tried hard to learn English like many other immigrants. Immigrants not only have to worry about learning another language but they also have to worry about teaching their kids their native language. Usually, when people move and have kids in America, the kids have a hard time learning their parent’s native language. Ashima and Ashoke wanted to avoid this problem so they sent Gogol and Sonia to Bengali language and culture lessons every other Saturday because it failed “to unsettle them that their children sound just like Americans, expertly conversing in a language that still at times confounds them in accents they are accustomed not to trust.” This shows the language barrier between the parents and the kids. When Gogol and Sonia speak they sound American

Following Eckert (1989, 2000), I define linguistic style as a combination of a particular set of linguistic features distinguishing social groups. In explaining how styles are created, I draw on Kallmeyer and Keim (2003:30) who suggest “the construction of a communicative social style is connected with the formation of specific linguistic and communicative patterns and rules on different linguistic levels. Elements from all expressive levels are combined to form a unique expression

Puja’s story is rather unique. Her family immigrated to the United States from Nepal six years ago, and as Puja stepped foot in Chicago for the first time, she was bombarded with a language that she barely understood. However, when you speak with her today, you would be hard pressed to believe she is not a native speaker. This transformation is due to Puja’s

Language has gradually advanced over many millions of years. Slang has developed, and other cultures languages and quirks have made their way in, and it has become one. Language has a way of shaping our identities, and personal cultures. It brings us together, and sometimes it even makes us move apart.

Indian English refers to dialects or varieties of English spoken primarily in India and also by Indian Diaspora elsewhere In the world. Due to British colonialism for over two hundred years’ as were used more to British English than to American, Australian or Canadian English. And due to the presence of vernacular languages in our country, English was chosen to be the co-official language of the union of India. Our obvious choice is one of the varieties of British English; which educated southern British English also called as “Received Pronunciation”