Abstract

The students writes about their development in the FIQWS course of language and literacy. The student writes how certain lessons or strategies taught in class has improved their English or what they still need to improve on.

The path of English

My journey of comprehending the English language is a long one. On my path, I faced many tumbles. I admire those who knew standard English, but I was also envious. I am thankful to all those who helped me and those to come. I have taken a turn and am learning other forms of English. The English I am able to relate. It’s nice to meet you.  

In the FIQWS course of language and literacy, I have been introduced to new forms of English. My reading and writing skills have improved due to recognizing and practicing key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations. I was able to accomplish this by annotating the course texts, completing out rhetorical situation worksheets, class discussions,  and writing my literacy narrative. In phase one, the objective was for students to explore language and literacy politics of language oppression and hierarchize of language. One of the course reading the class read was, the personal essay Mother Tongue by Amy Tan. Tan wrote about her mother, Daisy Li who faced langugae discrimination for her ‘broken’ English. It shows language oppression and hierarchy of languages because in American society, standard English is favored over dialects and accents of English. I was able to relate to Tan, especially when she had to translate for her mother. Thus, I used a similar situation of language discrimmation for my literacy narrative. Afterall, it hit me like rocks to know many people face language discrimination, and there isn’t much awareness to the issue. The rhetorical worksheet the class was assigned to fill out for Mother Tongue by Amy Tan, helped me organize my thoughts, by listing out important components of the text. It helped me understand the reading. In class we would go over our annotations and the information we filled out for the rhetorical situation worksheet. This class discussion was much needed, since sometimes I needed clarification and perspectives to use in my writing. It helped me build up my credibility, and flow of thoughts.  

In phase two, the objective was to critically and dialogically texts, learn about the library databases and practice various source-use strategies. One of the course readings for this phase was Gloria Anzualda’s essay “To tame a wild tongue”. Anzualda encourages language empowerment because it’s the identity of an individual, and a way for them to connect to other individuals. The class was assigned a research paper, in which we had to use two course readings. I intended to use Anzualda’s essay, but it wasn’t a good source for my topic. This is due to the 4 rhetorical précises the class was assigned to do for homework, it highlights the important elements of each source. I also intended to use other outside sources, but all were irrelevant and didn’t meet the criteria as an essential source. This is due to the library session in which the class was taught to use the school’s database in order to explore and analyze different variety of genres necessary for this research paper. Thus, we had to understand the print and digital technology used for a range of audiences, in order to evaluate the credibility, accuracy and bias of the author and whether it was relevant to the paper. We also practice citation convention in order to give credit to the author’s work we were planning to use. It helped me build up my credibility, and knowledge of the topic I was researching. 

In phase three, the objective was to analyze one example of a problem or interesting language brief or conflict. One of the course reading was Lippi-Green’s The Myth of Non-Accent, Green debunks the idea of standard English society. Green discussions many language attitude and standards of dialects and accents of English. Green’s main argument is that standard English is a hypothetical construct because we all live in different regions; which causes different dialect and accent to form based on how people in that region speak. In all three phases, there was one writing assignment done and multiple drafts to write. Peer review help me clarify my writing. In class, we had to write multiple drafts of our essays and print out copies. We would do multiple rounds of peer editing. The purpose of peer editing was to improve our essays; by making sure all components of the prompt is in our writing, making sure we had a thesis, ensuring that there isn’t any confusion in the writing and to include suggestions. This has helped me greatly because I get multiple perspectives on what needs editing and how I should revise my work.    

On my journey of comprehending the English language is a long one. In class I was taught to recognize the role of language attitudes, language empowerment, oppressing and hierarchizing languages with their users. I was also taught to expand on my English, by organizing my thoughts and ideals in a diagram. When it came to my writing skills, I was taught a new structure to list the important components of a text and to edit my writing by the suggestions of others. On this path, I still tumble but at least I’m heading to the right path.