ipl-logo

Comparing Gloria Anzaldua And American Usage By David Foster Wallace

707 Words3 Pages

In a world like today populated with over 7 billion people who share different forms of languages, vernaculars, and dialects are more common than ever, making it more than ever to be able to communicate successfully across languages and cultures. This essay will examine the advantages of learning other languages for individuals. To answer this question, we turn to the insights of two influential authors: Gloria Anzaldua and David Foster Wallace. Gloria Anzaldua, a Chicana writer, and activist wrote extensively about the complexities of language and identity and believes that learning an additional language may provide a variety of social and personal advantages. David Foster Wallace an author of the book “Authority and American Usage”.
David …show more content…

Anzaldua's use of language in these passages serves to emphasize the importance of recognizing and valuing linguistic diversity. Anzaldua also highlights the importance of preserving the many languages and dialects as Anzaldua herself writes “ From school, the media, and job situations, I've picked up standard and working-class English, from Mamacrine Locha, and from reading Spanish and Mexican literature, I've picked up Standard Spanish and Standard Mexican Spanish.” Gloria Anzaldua is highlighting how her personal experience in acquiring various languages and dialects has expanded her linguistic and cultural knowledge it shows the personal advantage of being multilingual. I fully support the decision and backed her claim of justifying the fact how the importance of learning multiple languages can help you build a stronger sense of belonging and understanding among various societies is facilitated by learning other languages, vernaculars, or dialects, which offer doors to new cultures and ways of …show more content…

David Wallace contends that it is beneficial to embrace and study other dialects and languages. David Wallace states “ This reviewer's opinion, though, is that both students and SWE are better served if the teacher makes his premises explicit, licit and his argument overt, presenting himself as an advocate of SWE's utility rather than as a prophet of its innate superiority.” In other words, Wallace believes that If Educators, for example, teachers and professors be more transparent about their views and arguments for the effectiveness of Standard western English, as a tool to better understand one another and connect ends with students to better facilitate the usage of the language. I support Wallace's decision of wanting to advocate for the educator to be more intuitive in making standard western English more useful instead of just having it and questioning the use of

Show More
Related
929 Words | 4 Pages

This is a problem that may be passed unnoticed because many of us may believe that this is no longer a problem in our society but sadly keeps happening today. Through her use of pathos, by telling her story, the author is persuading people not to discriminate based on the language others speak. Her purpose is to inform the reader about this issue and hopefully help prevent it from continuing to happen. Anzaldua adopts a declamatory tone in order to help her

Read More
513 Words | 3 Pages

Being bilingual can be both useful or irritating, having the ability to communicate and understand several languages or being raised to be an interpreter for your parents. As you become more exposed to a variety of languages you can often observe how society treats certain languages. Martin Espada is a lawyer and poet who defends Spanish speakers in America, makes it clear about the role of language in his essay, “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School.” He asserts that the importance of language is created from cultural identity. When Espada shared what he learned about maintaining and defending Spanish he proceeded to say, “Defending the right of all Latinos to use the tongue of their history and identity creates in me passion for Spanish itself.”

Read More
1343 Words | 6 Pages

Written by Gloria Anzaldua, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, is an opinion easy , a retrospection of her past and a story about identity and recognition of a wild tongue. The following is a rhetorical analysis and personal response of this easy . My analysis will be divided into 4 separate parts including intended audience, main claim, purpose and situation. (a) Intended audience : The first thing that anyone who even skims through this easy would notice is Anzaldua’s multi-lingual language use.

Read More
1241 Words | 5 Pages

Roberts, Edgar V, and Robert Zweig. Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Pearson Education, 2015. Print. "Sorry, I Don't Speak Spanish: Hispanics Deal with the Loss of Spanish Fluency."

Read More
1189 Words | 5 Pages

Language is first learned as an infant by absorbing and mimicking one's environment, surroundings, and daily life. For some, like myself, more than one language is spoken, and learning how to balance multiple languages can be a challenge. Trying to integrate language with culture and environment at times can be interesting and other times demanding and tiresome. Maxine Hong Kingston describes her struggles in coping with the differences in her languages, coming to terms with herself, and accepting how her culture uses language in her essay, “The Language of Silence”. Although similar struggles are had by Christine Marin, she writes in her essay “Spanish Lessons”, about how she discovered her culture through language, how it empowered her, and how she learned to love that part of herself.

Read More
504 Words | 3 Pages

The power of language We all have some form of language limitations, no matter where we come from and what our background is. “Mother tongue” by Amy Tan and “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua both share similar themes in their stories that demonstrate how they both deal with how different forms of the same language are portrayed in society. In both stories they speak about what society declares the right way of speech and having to face prejudgment, the two authors share their personal experiences of how they’ve dealt with it.

Read More
1601 Words | 7 Pages

The information and opinions provided in the excerpt “Authority and American Usage” by David Foster Wallace give an understanding of what Standard Written English is and why it is influential. It also sets up what the teaching of SWE in schools means for students. Foster Wallace makes an argument about the Democratic spirit and its connection to grammar and the use of SWE by different people. The main point he tries to make about SWE is that it allows people from different upbringings and backgrounds to come together and speak or converse in a language that is common ground, including the grammar and nuances that come with SWE. He urges that SWE is important to conserve communication between people of different heritages and have effective

Read More
942 Words | 4 Pages

Like how I repeated myself in the beginning, she gets words that she does and does not use and show how common it is for some and not others. The way Spanish affects her life is that others will look at her different. Anzaldua states, “in childhood we are told that our language is wrong” (39). She has a point for stating what she said. In every Spanish speaking country everyone will look at each other and say that they are speaking the wrong one, but they are all wrong.

Read More
1095 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout generations cultural traditions have been passed down, alongside these traditions came language. The language of ancestors, which soon began to be molded by the tongue of newer generations, was inherited. Though language is an everlasting changing part of the world, it is a representation of one’s identity, not only in a cultural way but from an environmental standpoint as well. One’s identity is revealed through language from an environmental point of view because the world that one is surrounded with can cause them to have their own definitions of words, an accent, etc. With newer generations, comes newer forms of languages.

Read More
840 Words | 4 Pages

Impact of a Language America, often referred to as the land of opportunity, is a challenging country to navigate for those not well versed in the English language. It is not only that differences in language create a communication barrier, but they also can impact those seeking a job, or something to eat, or result in a person being taken less seriously. The use of language can alienate and challenge the lives of people who cannot speak the language, but simultaneously language can bring people together and form a community. Navigating an English-speaking country is difficult. Amy Tan speaks about her experience with speaking two types of English.

Read More
674 Words | 3 Pages

Identity Crisis In “Se Habla Espanol” by Tanya Maria Barrientos, speaking multiple languages at the time of Barrientos being a child, was not perceived as a bonus on your job application. When she was just three years old she was moved to the states and her parents completely stopped using Spanish and taught their children English. They did this in order to provide a better education for their children in America. They knew that if they spoke Spanish, they would be perceived as poor individuals.

Read More
671 Words | 3 Pages

In paragraph 27 Anzaldúa states, “So if you want to hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity - I am my language”. She then goes on to explain how she needs to accept herself before society does. I get where she is coming from, and how she thinks she needs to be accepted and needs to accept herself, but I think she is asking for too much. We all feel unaccepted at some point in our life and may never actually feel like we belong, but we do bring some of that upon ourselves.

Read More
553 Words | 3 Pages

The United States is made up of some of the most diverse and interesting cultures in the world. Jamila Lyiscott proves this by showing her different dialects and how they are all equally important. Lyiscott believes that the way she speaks towards her parents, towards her friends, and towards her colleagues are all one in the same.  Throughout the entirety of her speech, Lyiscott changes up her vocal patterns and dialects so that the audience can understand first hand what each of these dialects are. When she talks about her father, Lyiscott uses her native tongue, when she talks to her fellow neighbors and close friends she switches it up to a more urbanized dialect, and when she is in school she masks the other two dialects with a professional sounding language.

Read More
434 Words | 2 Pages

Nowadays, it is important to speak more than one language to be educated, to have friends and to get a good job. For example, before I came to the U.S. I only can speak Arabic which restricted me to communicate with people who can speak Arabic, but after I learned the English language I can communicate with most the people around the world also communicate with knowledge because the new language that I have learned changed the way that I was thinking. English language made me read more and more to be refined. As much as you read you become knowledgeable. Lera Boroditsky says: “could you still have friends, get an education, hold a job, [...]” (1).

Read More
980 Words | 4 Pages

The use of language and identity are conceived as two different concepts that fall under the common roof of socio-culture. Much like the older days, our language is based on and shaped by our historical background and socio-political contexts. Until this day, the way we speak is quite similar to the way our ancestors spoke, for the simple reason that is we initiate from the same natal country or share the same culture. These findings pushed scientists to conduct further research in order to understand the real connection between language, identity and culture, which we will be investigating in the following blog. Language and Social Identity

Read More

More about Comparing Gloria Anzaldua And American Usage By David Foster Wallace

Related Topics

Open Document