Edwards 'Different Language: Current Views Of Disadvantaged Speech'

Language is a major part of everyone’s life. Every country or even a community have their own language or a way of speaking, and these are the things that differentiate people from one another. Jamila Lyiscott speech, “3 Ways of Speaking English” and Suzanne Talhouk speech, “Don’t Kill Your Language” on TED talks, addresses different issues related with language and the way of speaking a particular language. Both of the speeches effectively use rhetorical elements or devices. Both of these people are well-known speakers, so they have some credibility even before they begin speaking. When they do start their speeches, both effectively employ emotional appeal, facts and logic to convey their intended message to the audience.

Myth 17 describe by Dennis R Preston is on the topic of language and the different way people speak in the states. The myth is that some varieties of a language are not as good as others (Bauer and Trudgill, 1998). In every region or area it is known to the members of the society that there is a specific type of dialogues spoken. One very important fact that was mentioned in Myth 17 was language variety does not correlate with intelligence or competence (Bauer and Trudgill, 1998). From the findings of the different studies we easily see how there is an overall bias from each group that gives their input. We also see that there is an overall trend of people from other parts of the America that believe New York and the south do not speak regular English. We also see how it 's very subjective and when participants of the study in New York the south they thought they had really good English language. My reaction to Myth 17 is very simple. I always thought there is proper way in way English should be spoken. After reading this chapter I really understood that we all have our different views and sometimes we are biased on our views on

Do you ever think about the way you speak and why? Well, Paul Robert does an excellent job explaining why people use the dialect they use in Speech Communities. He discusses that people change their use of language throughout their lives to conform to either society or to what kind of person they want to be, or to just conform to who they need to be at a particular moment, in which I agree. People’s choice of language, including myself, are affected by many of their surroundings, such as where they live and grow up at, their peers, and a person’s work place.

People who are different are consequently viewed differently. It is human nature to judge others by the stereotypes that have been ingrained into our minds for however long. Stereotypes, however, may not encompass the whole story. Sometimes, you are only getting the discriminatory side of the story--a single story. Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” focuses on the discrimination towards broken English compared to Standard English and the stereotypes that evolved from such discrimination. Similarly, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story” presents the idea that the “single story” is the reason for biased stereotypes that, more often than not, are untrue. Tan’s life in America was seemingly difficult due to the fact that her life and education were dependent on the language barrier between English and her “mother tongue”--the latter being seen as inferior and embarrassing. She initially felt that her mother’s fragmented English was something to be ashamed of since that was the “single story” that her peers have been spoonfed their whole lives. Adichie, however, denies these views by explaining that such stereotypes are incomplete and do not relay the person at hand’s true identity. In both “Mother Tongue” and “The Danger of a Single Story,” the speakers express how a person’s native language influences their identity through rhetorical devices such as ethos, diction, and metaphors.

Former President George W. Bush gave a speech entitled "Ending Racial Inequality" in 2000. This speech is civil and effective because of his smooth transitions from one concept to another. This helps his speech to flow logically, and it's easy for his audience to follow. George Bush also has ethos because he is the Presient of the United States. His ethos gives the audience reason to listen to his solutions to racial inequality. Saying things such as "I believe in these standards" and listing statistics; "90 percent of the cost of basic health care...," brings logic to his speech, making it more effective. He alluded to Abraham Lincoln, who is, of course, a strong figure in racial equality and stirs up the desired emotions as well as his references

Speech is often associate with race because some individuals believe that if the person does not sound “educated” enough the person comes from a lower class and was brought up in the so called “ghettos” and this association is often made towards someone that forms part of a minority group. The author illustrates that race is tight up with speech

In the civilized society that everyone lives in today, all languages and culture should be equal. That is the main idea in both Gloria Anzaldua’s essay, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, as well as James Baldwin’s “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?”. The authors in both these texts support their argument in various ways, and in doing so, manages to effectively persuade their audience. The ways that each author approaches their argument is different in their appeals, evidence, and styles. Similarities also exist between the texts of the two authors. The rhetorical strategies that Anzaldua uses makes her argument much stronger than Baldwin’s argument.

Chang-Rae Lee’s Native Speaker expresses prominent themes of language and racial identity. Chang-Rae Lee focuses on the struggles that Asian Americans have to face and endure in American society. He illustrates and shows readers throughout the novel of what it really means to be native of America; that true nativity of a person does not simply entail the fact that they are from a certain place, but rather, the fluency of a language verifies one’s defense of where they are native. What is meant by possessing nativity of America would be one’s citizenship and legality of the country. Native Speaker suggests that if one looks different or has the slightest indication that one should have an accent, they will be viewed not as a native of

James Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, and social critic. In the article ''If Black English Isn't a language then tell me what is?'' James Baldwin's asserts an argument as how Language is like the ID of people, it can identify, as well as define people. Due to the characteristics it has it can be defined as a persuasive essay. It attempts to persuade the readers to be on the writer's side, or accept their point of view. The article is about the history of black slavery will always be a boundary between black and white people, as it can never be forgotten. This significant essay was written in the 1970s. It talks about how language is not merely used for communication, it can be used to classify people with different social backgrounds and class. He used examples like how people in England talk make sense to their own people and not everyone else to demonstrate his thought of why Black English is not recognized as a real language. The reason is that Black English is creation of the black diaspora. In addition, he thinks that white man never meant to teach the Blacks English, the sole purpose of it was for the blacks to understand with the white people are saying so they can serve the white people. That is also the reason why he thinks black child are lost is that children can't be taught by people who despise them. I find it to be an interesting idea. He talked about the origin of black people going back to slavery. The inability to interact with each other made them create black English. Which was their own means of communication. I think that this article has a lot to say about the impact that language has on African American people and his positive approach is supported with strong historical evidence, and the authors anger behind this writing makes it stronger. However, the assumption about education makes the article weak.

In the article, How to Tame a Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua describes how a person is judge based on the speak they have. The people that have English or other languages as a second language are more likely to speak a different way. Therefore, people make fun other those who cannot pronounces words right. Those people are the one that do more have a harder time speaking to people with can lead to mental trauma. These people tend to lose their identity to please others that are persuading them to speak the American language. The author discusses how people that have their second language be the common language is harder to get work that pays good. The author has experience this kind of thing where we are judged base on the way you speak a language.

Moreover, in the article “Five stereotypes about poor families and education” by Valerie Strauss it explains more about the issue of language assumption due to race. For example, in her article she mentions, “It might be easy, given the stereotype that low-income families do not value education... many teachers assume that low-income families are completely uninvolved in their children’s education” (Patterson, Hale, & Stessman, 2007). Therefore, this stereotype always being made of low-income families always comes back to the people thinking that these parents are not smart. Not only that but there assumption starts to be quite devastating for the reason that they keep on having this stereotypical mind of thinking that leads to the assumption that of these low-income people that “do not pay much attention to their child education because they don’t care”.

The United States of America is one of the world’s most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations. Even though there is not an official national language, most Americans speak Standard American English (SAE). However, the most prevalent native English vernacular dialect in the United States is African American Vernacular English (AAVE). According to Sharon Vaughn, AAVE is “a dialect used by some African Americans” (110). In order to examine AAVE, one must explore the origins, grammatical features, and prominent resolutions, which created a precedent for educating students that speak dialects other than Standard American English.

across the street may dream of getting a new house. The rich man with a big house might

In chapter 4, Window on Humanity, it is stated that “Just as social situation influence our speech, so do geographic, cultural, and socioeconomic differences. Many dialects coexist in the United States with SE, which itself is a dialect that differs from, say, ‘BBC English,’ the preferred dialect in Great Britain. Different dialects are equally effective as system of communication, which is the main job of language. Our tendency to think of particular dialects as cruder or more sophisticated than others is a social rather than a linguistic judgment. We rank certain speech patterns as better or worse because we recognize that they are used by groups that we also rank….However, this form of speech has become in indicator of low social rank. We

People who speak the prestige dialect often look down on those that do not speak the standard dialect. Some may view non-standard speakers as illogical or unsystematic due to their “bad” speaking. Others view non-standard speakers as uneducated and lazy based on the way they speak. Many non-standard speakers may also be told that they speak wrong or inferior.