Ebonics In Schools

“Mother Tongue” is an essay by Amy Tan that examines the ways in which people treat those who do not speak or act like them. Simply, how people perceive those that are different . The main purpose of “Mother Tongue” is to inform the readers of the ways they might intentionally or unintentionally be treating people who speak broken english as Tan’s mother does. This essay highlights the extreme importance of language and how it connects with everyone’s day to day lives.

In “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan an American writer, shares her experience growing up with the family where no one speaks perfect English, and how it affected her education and her life. As the second generation of Chinese immigrants, Tan faces more problems than her peers do. Her mother, who speaks limited English needs Tan to be her “Translator” to communicate with the native English speakers. Tan states, “I was ashamed of her English” (2). Her mother is like a burden to her, at least in Tan’s early years. But the cultural conflict she becomes the theme of her writing and it is under this situation she wrote many novels and essays including “Mother Tongue.”

Mother Tongue is a story that describes how Amy Tan’s mother was treated unfairly because of her “broken English”. As the second generation of Chinese immigrants, Tan faces more problems than her peers do. Her mom, who speaks “limited” English, needs Tan to be her “translator” in order to communicate with the native English speakers. Tan has felt ashamed of her mother “broken” language at first. She then contemplates her background affected her life and her study. However, she changes her thought at the end since she realizes things behind language might be more valuable than language itself sometimes. Through the various different literary devices and rhetorical strategies such as the ethos, pathos, and logos appeals, as well as a

The purpose of Amy Tan’s essay, “Mother Tongue,” is to show how challenging it can be if an individual is raised by a parent who speaks “limited English” (36) as Tan’s mother does, partially because it can result in people being judged poorly by others. As Tan’s primary care giver, her mother was a significant part of her childhood, and she has a strong influence over Tan’s writing style. Being raised by her mother taught her that one’s perception of the world is heavily based upon the language spoken at home. Alternately, people’s perceptions of one another are based largely on the language used.

Tan’s attitude towards her mother’s English begins with embarrassment and humiliation. Growing up in an immigrant family which speaks imperfect English, Tan witnesses many discriminations that her mother has encountered in department stores or at banks, those experiences help to shape Tan’s opinion to her mother’s English. For example, Tan states that “[she] was ashamed of [her mother’s] English. [She] believed that [her mother’s] English reflected the quality of what [her] mother had to say” (508). In young Amy’s opinion, her mother’s expressions and thoughts are broken and imperfect like the way she speaks, and she believes that linguistic expression is linked to a person’s intelligence. As a result, she was ashamed of her mother in public because of her fractured English.

The article "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan shows firsthand instances of how Amy's mother was treated because of the way she spoke. She was disregarded, not taken seriously, and thought of as dim. The author uses logic, emotion, and reasoning to show why this way of thinking is not often true. The article’s main claim of how people perceive the intelligence of those who speak broken English is easily defined because of the authors use of writing techniques like telling personal stories, creating an appeal to emotion, and an appeal to logic.

“ When I was growing up my mother limited english limited my perception of her, I was ashamed of her english I believed that her english reflected the quality of what she had to say” ( Tan 8 ). In the article “ Mother Tongue” Amy Tan convey’s her central message by using pathos, Logos, And ethos to show how her mother was treated, and how it affected her growing up

In Amy Tan’s narrative, “Mothers Tongue”, Tan speaks about the unique dialect that she and her mother share. Only she could understand and conversations with her mother and understand every word she is saying. Tan writes about how she grew up with the variations of English; the perfect English that she spoke to the public, and the broken English she used with her mother. Tan writes that from a young age she was very embarrassed by the limited knowledge of English and how that “… reflected the quality of what she had to say.” (Tan, pg. 635) Tan reflects that with her mother’s limitations, she had to talk on her mother’s behalf just to have others hear what her mother had to say, Amy recalls a time where she was called to basically interpret

Standard American dialect is necessary in academic writing for three key reasons. First, the ability to use standard American dialect is a skill that people living in America should obtain because it is the most spoken and written language across the country. Having the knowledge to use standard American dialect will be helpful in many different situations, such as in the classroom and business world. In addition, being able to write using this dialect, will guide in writing a stronger, clearer paper, as well as ensuring unity between all academic writing. I disagree with the following statement from “Students’ Right to Their Own Language”: “We affirm strongly that teachers must have the experiences and training that will enable them to respect diversity and uphold the right of students to their own language” (3). Teachers should not have to go through an immense amount of training

She maintains this will allow them to generate cognitive and linguistic progress that nurtures their transition to English (Stover, 2015). Therefore, according to Dr. Vonderlack-Navarro, the “English only” approach can be detrimental to learning English (Stover, 2015). Vonderlack-Navarro contends school board members need to endorse specific strategies and support multilingual classrooms in response to the question, “How does the school board make these literacy gains in a classroom with English language learners who speak different languages?” (Stover, 2015).

“Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan and the text by Diana Eades focus specifically on the form of language used and the discrimination it entails. Amy Tan describes the language used by Daisy Li as “broken or fractured English” (Tan, A, 1990). This is an example of language discrimination as it criticises and condemns the variation or form of English spoken by Li, which is Chinese-English. This language discrimination is also prominent in the experience of Daisy Li conversing with the stockbroker in New York, as she forces her daughter to speak for her. This is due to the certain limitations accompanied with her particular form of English.

In the essay, “Mother Tongue”, Amy Tan lays out examples of noticing the different Englishes in her life and how she incorporates them into her writing. She also breaks down the different versions of English that have taken root in her life. Tan notes that she includes all the Englishes of her life in her book, The Joy Luck Club. Tan, the daughter of immigrants, learned to navigate between the “perfect” English of her professional life and the “broken” English of her youth. The author’s main claim of there being no perfect way of speaking English is one that can be easily recognized because Tan gives clear examples of the diverse versions of English in her life, she pinpoints moments in which she sees the differences and discovers how to accept and acclimate these differences to her life and career.

People who can speak a certain language, but only in ‘broken’ form, are generally looked down upon by native language speakers. In her writing, Mother Tongue, Amy Tan writes about her

Tan’s attitude towards her mother’s English begins with embarrassment and humiliation. Growing up in an immigrant family which speaks imperfect English, Tan witnesses many discriminations that her mother has encountered in department stores or at banks, those experiences help to shape Tan’s opinion to her mother’s English. For example, Tan states that “[she] was ashamed of [her mother’s] English. [She] believed that [her mother’s] English reflected the quality of what [her] mother had to say” (508). In young Amy’s opinion, her mother’s expressions and thoughts are broken and imperfect like the way she speaks, and she believes that linguistic expression is linked to a person’s intelligence. As a result, she was ashamed of her mother in public because of her fractured English.

"The chief wonder of education is that it does not ruin everybody concerned in it, teacher's and taught." This was stated in 1901 by Henry Brooks Adams (1828-1918) U.S. historian and writer, “The Education of Henry Adams”. When he said this, he was saying that the education was out to better one’s life in the way. So, it would and is completely unlawful for a second language to be thought outside English and this will show this by speaking primarily on one the limited access to all languages and no preference on which one to acquire, how this would show a bias towards one profession and retract learning for individual’s life career and Finally How It discards original intention of public school and search for an education. Starting with one, the limited access to all languages and no preference on which language to be acquired. The basis of this argument is that if you are going to make it mandatory to learn a second language outside of their own natural language, then you must adequately have prepared to teach all language. Otherwise, you would be showing a preference for one language and disregard the intentions of the student and their wishes. Not only this with all the languages out there, there is no one language that sticks out far enough to make it mandatory to learn outside of English but seeing how this language has already been acquired and is already being thought as a class till beyond college this would be irrelevant. But if looking at the rest of the languages