Exam prep instructions
EXAM PREP BLOG INSTRUCTIONS
Each week I will post 5 terms that have been discussed in our course. You are responsible for writing responses for 2 of them (ie. 2 per week). Write your responses as if you were writing the answers for an exam. Post your responses in the comments section under the appropriate term. Please try to have your responses posted before your tutorial begins on Monday/Tuesday.
If you cannot access the comments section to post your response, you must email me and I will send you an invite to the blog.
Participating in this exercise will account for 30% of your final participation grade. I will be posting 5 terms/week over the next 6 weeks, so by posting an adequate response for 2 terms will earn you 5%/week.
If you have any questions, please email me at jhandreae@gmail.com
This exam prep exercise in no way guarantees that all or any of these terms will appear on the final exam. You are responsible for familiarizing yourself will all of the terms relevant to this course.
Amy Tan's Mother Tongue is written in a story o Tan's life in respect to her mother. The Standard English Tan grew up with turned out to be a completely different kind of English than what her mother spoke. Despite the difference, she is able to clearly understand both versions compared to the people in their lives who did not. There really is not “Standard English”; no matter the language as long as one can understand each other than that should suffice. A persons style of speech or writing is never transparent because there is always a different impact on different people. Therefore, it is incorrect to label any variation of English as “Broken English” or ”Non-standard English” based on the exceptions of what is legitimate language.
ReplyDelete“All My Englishes” is Amy Tan’s phrase for “broken English”. She sees this as a better way to name the different ways to gauge how people speak English. For example, her mother did not speak “perfect English” but she could speak enough so that Amy understood what she meant. Orwell also brings up the idea that English is changing all the time, and we should focus on our meaning rather than our means. Tan expresses that there is no “standard english” and believing in one discounts and devalues other versions of english (such as her mother’s “broken” english). We discussed this idea when looking at language and argument and the politics of language, and how the way we say things impacts our meaning.
ReplyDelete"All My Englishes" to Amy Tan is what we know as "Broken English". People from different countries and backgrounds have different mother tongues that influence pronunciation in other different languages which is not their own. Amy Tan's Mother Tongue is a story about her mother and how she spoke English which was not exactly the best in today's standards. Sort of like broken telephone, people hear and see things differently and are interpreted differently. Even the way people write differs from one another, some might have nicer cursive writing, some might have chicken scratch. The most important part is that there's a line of understanding through all the different channels of english which is what really matters.
ReplyDelete“All My Englishes” is referred to by Amy Tan who uses the word to replace “broken English”. Amy defines “All My Englishes” to be various forms of English, as the way a person of a different mother tongue may speak English different from a person of English as their mother tongue. Amy’s mother spoke English, it was not of a standard we would recognize to be considered proper English, but she spoke enough for Amy to comprehend what was being said. Just like how people pronounce tomato differently, Amy expresses how the way a person speaks English will be different from the person sitting next to them. In Politics and the English Language, George Orwell expresses how there is no “standard English” and of how our English is changing on a daily basis. He also shines light on the meaning of our words rather the ways in which we mean to speak it. Depending on our mother tongue, translating a sentence into English will and can be different as the grammar in the mother tongue will be different to our “standardized English”.
ReplyDelete"All My Englishes" is a phrase Amy Tan coined to explain the various English Dialects that she spoke. Tan disliked the term "broken English" to describe the way her mother spoke to her, versus what people believe is 'structured' English. Many families have different home languages, and thus, describing their English as "broken", she felt, was very exclusive. Therefore, Tan did not want to privilege only one type of English and wanted to think inclusively in terms of different English dialects.
ReplyDelete"All My Englishes" is a phrase Amy Tan coined to explain the various English Dialects that she spoke. Tan disliked the term "broken English" to describe the way her mother spoke to her, versus what people believe is 'structured' English. Many families have different home languages, and thus, describing their English as "broken", she felt, was very exclusive. Therefore, Tan did not want to privilege only one type of English and wanted to think inclusively in terms of different English dialects.
ReplyDeleteThe term “All my Englishes” comes from the assigned class reading “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan. She uses the term “All my Englishes” to refer to the different dialects or ways there are to speak the English language. Tan says that one might describe her immigrant mother’s English as broken or limited but she explains that her mother fully understands “whole” English. She explains that she does not like to call her mothers English broken because it implies that there is something wrong with it so she instead sees it as one of many types of Englishes. On this topic of the English language, in lecture we also discussed George Orwell’s “Politics of the English Language” essay in which he is essentially trying to encourage readers to simply say what they mean. He explores the bad habits that are part of the English language and the importance of being able to think clearly.
ReplyDeleteAmy Tan refers to today’s term of “broken English” as “All my Englishes” in her essay Mother Tongue. In her essay she explains that the term “broken English” is degrading and offensive and that it is wrong. She gives the example of her mother not being able to speak English properly to societies standards. Tan conveys the idea of there not being a single and correct form of English even among the native speakers, for example even within the English language there are words that are spelled differently in Canada as to the United States. Canadians spell colour with a “u” meanwhile Americans spell it without the “u”. In his essay Politics and the English Language, Orwell explains that language is ever changing, the meaning of a word today may alter just a few years from now. Take the word “sick” of example, its literal meaning is “ill” but today it is used as a term to describe something as “cool”.
ReplyDeleteAll My English is known as broken English and in terms of the course it relates back to the story of Amy Tan’s mother who didn’t speak the best English. The author however believes that there is no such thing as broken English. The reason why is because people from different places in the world have a different mother tongue which in the end influences the English they speak. This results in there not being one single form of English that can be deemed the form or example of what proper English is. All forms of English according to the author have the same foundation and each form should be respected equally. And so, it is important to not disrespect or denigrate one form over the other by making one form the golden standard. At the end of the day, it’s all about your individual experiences that affect things like the way you speak English.
ReplyDelete"All my Englishes" is referred to in the text 'Mother Tongue' by Amy Tan. Tan uses this phrase to describe broken English. There are different kinds of ways to speak English based on different skill levels but the language is never broken. The standard English that Tan learned in school and grew up with is not the same English that her mother spoke. It is suggested that there is no single and correct version of the English language and that all ways of speaking should be respected. Even native English speakers have different versions of English, for instance a casual way of speaking using slang words and not worrying about grammar when speaking to friends or a more professional way of speaking with proper grammar and a larger vocabulary when speaking to professors or employers.
ReplyDelete