As
I read both chapters of Grammar Alive and
the Christiansen article, I found myself both heartily agreeing—and
disagreeing—with what was being said[a side comment].
A contradiction, I know, but it is the truth. The main gist of these two pieces
of work is that students all have a right to their own form of language. We all have different circumstances of life
that changes our identity, our surroundings affect us in numerous ways; one of
which is our use of language[the combining of two similar full sentences].
Take me for example: I was born in Northwest Florida, but my mom and the vast
majority of my family is from Louisiana, we then moved to Arizona, then to
Germany, then to Florida, then to Hawaii, and now I find myself here in
Washington. All of this has resulted in a language that is a hodgepodge of many
different cultures. I spell many of my words in the British-English style, I
use words and pronunciations that are distinctly southern, and because I am
used to talking to people that don’t speak English, I take care to fully
enunciate most of my words.
One may ask how this affects me in
grammar. For the most part, what seems to get me in the most trouble with my
American teachers, is my use of British spelling. As I said in my last Blog, I
have had teachers in the past accuse me of plagiarism because I use spelling of
words not used here in America. For the most part, however, my own brand of
“language” is found in speech, which adds cause for many people to give me odd
looks, or tease me, when I say words that are simply pronounced different, or
are never used, here in the northwest. Honestly it can get annoying—but I
digress.
Because I can fully relate with
Christiansen, I do believe that we
should all have a right to our own language, especially in speech, and should
realize that we all already know grammar and it can’t be retaught to us. That
being said, I am a firm believer that kids in school need to be taught a “proper”
version of English. Almost every language in existence has its dialects, and
then a proper dialect that people use when talking to others from outside their
region. We don’t have this in America. When someone from Georgia and someone
from New Jersey meet, there is a language barrier, and we have no way to
overcome that. THAT is the purpose of proper grammar and proper language, to
encourage communications across the continent and the world. English is the
world’s dominant language right now; it’s also one of the most versatile. We
need a form of English taught in all English speaking countries so that we can
bring the world just a little bit closer together.
I found your post this week interesting. I have lived in Washington all my life so for me I never had that language barrier between myself and my teachers. In my own little Washington bubble…I knew people from other states and countries say and write things differently than I, but I never thought of the effect it would have on their education. I agree with your points on having a right to our own language: but we also need a proper English that is universal.
ReplyDeleteIn your first sentence you said, “As I read both chapters of Grammar Alive and the Christiansen article, I found myself both heartily agreeing—and disagreeing—with what was being said”. By using the dash, you were able to show that although you agree with the articles and book we read in class, there were aspects of it you disagreed with. It added emphases to your point and while you could’ve used commas, it wouldn’t have nearly the same effect or emphasis that the dash added.
In another sentence you said, “We all have different circumstances of life that changes our identity, our surroundings affect us in numerous ways; one of which is our use of language”. The second sentence after the semicolon, I believe is a transitive sentence, it can’t stand on its own. I would change the sentence to say “We all have different circumstances of life that changes our identity; one of which is our use of language. Our surroundings affect us in numerous ways.” Then lead into your example from your own life experiences. By doing this it adds more emphasis on the point that language is something that is effected by the circumstances in our life. By switching around this middle section of your sentence and making it its own sentence I believe creates a good lead into your example.
A place that you could have experimented with punctuation is in your sentence, “For the most part, what seems to get me in the most trouble with my American teachers, is my use of British spelling.” In this sentence I would have used an ellipses to add not exactly hesitation but a hesitation that adds suspense. The sentence would read, “For the most part, what seems to get me in the most trouble with my American teachers…is my use of British spelling”. It adds this effect of “What is she going to say? And “What gets her in trouble?” because people aren’t going to expect the British spelling and it shows this hesitation in how it can be tedious.
I liked how you shared your own personal experience with English, and how living in other parts of the world has had an effect on your learning. When I was in high school we housed a foreign exchange student from Norway. Although she learned English in school everyday for her whole life coming to the U.S was a major shock to her when she compared her English to people here in Washington. She learned a very proper way to speak English so when she came to Washington and heard everyone using slang terms and words, she was surprised. Over time her dialect adapted, but it was never quite like people who have lived in the U.S their whole lives. I thought of our foreign exchange student when I read your experience, and agreed with what you said about having the right to our own language. Some people move around place to place, so expecting a person to change the way they talk solely based on where they live is not practical. Good job experimenting with different types of punctuation, and thanks for sharing!
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