Exploratory Essay

In the exploratory essay, I argue about how society evaluate individuals based on their articulation leading to classification of people, racism, and linguistic discrimination by using academic resources such as peer reviewed articles that are credible sources. I also support my argument by using different texts that hold a similar point of view as me on accent evaluation. I also use pathos and logos since certain texts help the reader imagine and feel what the people were going through while being discriminated for the way they express themselves.

The Consequences of Accents Evaluation

Most people view language as a tool to communicate their ideas, needs and emotions. However, not many consider the fact that language can harm a person, that it can destroy their self esteem, and that it can separate someone from their sense of self. America is a melting pot. A country where many immigrants reside, all hoping to achieve the American dream, which is the ideal that every person should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative causing many immigrants to come to the United States due to financial issues or persecution from their government. Some of these immigrants have accents due to interference from their native language. These accents often have a negative impact on the immigrants’ lives. Society often evaluates individuals based on their accents leading to the classification of people which can result in racism and language discrimination.

Society tends to categorize people based on their language skills. Walt Wolfram, a sociolinguist specializing in social and ethnic dialects of American English , in his article “Everyone has an accent’, narrated  how some teachers use negative words to describe the way a student speaks. Wolfram mentions “Teachers sometimes classify students’ speech as “deficient” when it is simply different from the testing norm” (Wolfram Teaching Tolerance) Wolfram illustrates how even educators are involved in viewing a student as inferior due to their accent. They even degrade the students by categorizing them as lacking. While Wolfram argues that teachers are grouping students based on their language efficiency, Amy Tan, an American writer who received the “Los Angeles Times Book”, in her narrative, “Mother Tongue”, extends that race also plays a role in that classification of people due to the mastery of the language. Tan complicates matters further when she writes, “…they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science…”(Tan 4) Basically, Tan is saying that teachers are not only degrading students they also have prototypes of what a student should be or do with their life based on their race. Kroskrity, Paul V., an American linguistic anthropologist known primarily for his contributions to establishing and developing language ideology as a field of research, in his article, ”Facing the Rhetoric of Language Endangerment: Voicing the Consequences of Linguistic Racism” that argues about how some language speakers struggle to maintain their cultural identity due to language shift and and the domination of the language in the country where they reside. , similarly holds Tan’s position of classification of a person having to do with race, when kroskrity, himself, states “In addition to a racially stratified system in which an Indian mother could be so easily categorized as “unfit,” (Kroskrity 181) Kroskrity’ s point is that society even goes to classifying a mother as “unfit” for her daughter because of the way she speaks, and because of her race.  Although I agree with all of their arguments up to a point, I cannot accept their overall conclusion because they are only stating the conflicts that the people are facing. My point here is that they should also think about outlining ways of preventing these classifications from happening. To illustrate my idea, I stand alongside with Anne H. Charity Hudley et al, an American linguist who works on language variation in secondary schools and a member of the Linguistic Society of America Executive Committee, in her article, “Linguistics and race: An interdisciplinary approach towards an LSA statement on race” that claims that race has been integral to how languages have been defined over time and using language to predict someone’s culture can lead to stereotyping and the article also asserts different ways through different perspectives in which society can educate themselves to avoid linguistic racism., she argues “Rather than having a focus on merely counting speakers or linguistic features, we should work towards models that more explicitly aim to empower (not just describe and value) voices” ( Hudley et al 6) This means that instead of wasting our time on rating who speaks better and denigrating other’s language skills, we should take that time to help them improve so that we can decrease the unfairness happening in society. Therefore, it can be concluded that society do classify people based on race and language skills, but we shouldn’t only focus on stating the conflicts but try to find ways to solve them.

Society’s evaluation of people’s articulation can also lead to racism. Kroskrity claims that some language speakers are oppressed and endangered on more general social issues.  In his article, ”Facing the Rhetoric of Language Endangerment: Voicing the Consequences of Linguistic Racism”, Kroskrity notes that “My father tried to make me stop speaking Mono and going to events with other Mono people. He even tried to stop me from talking to my mother…told them my mother was “unfit” to take care of me because she was an Indian. Teachers and administrators encouraged “white” children to avoid direct contact with Indians ” ( Kroskrity 180) In making this comment, Kroskrity explains how a mother had to be separated from her child by her own divorcé because of  the way she speaks and her race. Kroskrity highlights how the racism took place by showing how the father prevents the daughter from going to gatherings with other Monos, her mother’s race and how even educators were encouraging students to practice racism by telling them how they should not interact with Indian students. Though Wolfram concedes alongside Kroskrity that an individual’s accent can lead to racism, he still maintains that these negative remarks can austerely affect a person’s life. Wolfram states “ If someone has been told enough times that she speaks badly, it’s just a matter of time before she starts believing that she is as worthless as her speech.” (Wolfram Teaching Tolerance) Wolfram reveals how the victims’ self esteem decreased due to the destructive critics’ of their enunciation. Extending Wolfram’s observation that society’s criticism lead individuals to have a distorted view of their sense of self,  Tan mentions about how her mother encountered a similar situation where she views herself as not being confident enough to express herself with the knowledge she has about English. Tan asserts “ my mother has long realized the limitation of her English as well. When I was fifteen, she used to have me call on the phone to pretend I was she” ( Tan 2) Tan’s point here is that her mother got lambasted so much that she gets to a point where she didn’t want to express herself to get what she wants. She had to use her daughter to be her voice. I similarly hold Kroskrity, Tan,and Wolfram’s position of how society’s judgement of individuals’ intonation can result in racism which leads to these individuals feeling inferiors but I also wish to add about how we should try to find the roots of these complications so we can find an elucidation to set a precedent for future generations. To elucidate my point, I support Hudley et al’ s statement that “ A formal statement on race in linguistics can allow for dialogue about what linguistics can uniquely or in combination with other models can contribute to a scholarly understanding of race. “ ( Hudley et al 8) What is important to notice here is that instead of being racist to others due to their accents, we, as a whole, should educate society to further understand the idea of race and accent so history doesn’t repeat itself.  Furthermore, Wolfram also extends on what steps we can also take to correct society’s misconceptions so we can prevent racism from taken place. Wolfram agrees when he points out “ it is essential to provide instruction specifically targeting language diversity at the local, regional and national levels. It is a curious and even dangerous omission when the unique sounds of a culture are silenced.” ( Wolfram Teaching Tolerance) This means that society should not try eradicating people’s culture so they can be assimilated, instead society should try to acknowledge a person’s culture, help them keep it alive so they can have a sense of belonging. If we condemn their accents, we basically destroying their cultural identity. Therefore, it can be deduced that while society do evaluate people’s accents which can result in racism, we also have to keep in mind that these evaluations can damage a person’s self esteem., which is why we have to educate ourselves more about race and accents.

Society’s assessment of individuals’ cadence can lead to language discrimination. Tan’s mother was not fluent in English so she struggled a lot speaking English on her own when Tan wasn’t with her. Writing the narrative “ Mother Tongue”, Tan admits that “ The fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her or even acted as if they did not hear her.” ( Tan 2) The essence of Tan’s argument is that her mother had to face many difficulties due to her lack of articulation in English. She was refused certain services because of her accent. She was discriminated against because she couldn’t conveys her needs clearly. Wolfram also expands on Tan’s statement that  immigrants families usually get discriminate against due to their language differences, Wolfram concedes “In the workplace perfectly capable workers who speaks non-mainstream dialects may be denied occupational opportunities because they just don’t sound right for the job.” ( Wolfram Teaching Tolerance) Wolfram insists that discrimination also happen in the workplace and that it’s even worse since these sufferers are perfect candidates for their position but because they have an accent they are not being evaluated fairly. Though Kroskrity concedes alongside Tan and Wolfram’s statements, he still remarked that “So they kept me there and only once in a while could I see my mother when they let her visit me. When I was lonely and had nobody to talk to I spoke Mono to myself at night to remind me of her so I would not be so sad.” ( Kroskrity 182) Kroskrity emphasizes how linguistic discrimination also happen within families. He demonstrates it by showing how a mother couldn’t enjoy her child’s love and growth because of her language. While Tan, Wolfram and Kroskrity discuss that linguistic discrimination can interfere with a person’s opportunities and social life, my own view is that nothing is impossible if we want it to happen so we can find a way to appease both the victims of linguistic discrimination and society. To explicate my idea, I totally agree with Hudley et al’ s proposition that “ For example, much information for educators about African-American English employs a “code-switching” model that is designed to encourage speakers of African-American English to be adept at switching between African-American English and the language variety of the school or dominant culture.” (Hudley et al 8) So this helps me to conclude that people can practice knowing which environment is best for them to use their dialect and which  required a formal and academic one so we can decrease linguistic discrimination from happening.

In summary, it is important to note that society’s judgement of individuals’ pronunciation can result in categorization of people, racism and language discrimination. By outlining different situations in which different authors showed people being grouped based on their language skills and are being labeled negatively supports my argument of classification of people based on their accents. Moreover, we see that accents’ evaluation can lead to racism by discerning how one of the authors (Kroskrity) illustrates how a mother was separated from her child because of her race and the way she speaks, also by seeing how certain student were told to distance themselves from certain races. We also see linguistic bias happening due to individuals’ articulation. By asserting how some immigrants face difficulties from achieving their needs and goals due to language differences. Additionally, to reduce the classification of people, racism and language discrimination from happening we should educate society more about people culture, race and dialect so future generations don’t judge people based on their accent. Lastly, I was browsing the New York Times website and found this picture.

I think it’s very interesting how Roberto Rey Agudo, a research assistant professor and a language program director, showed that image on his article “Everyone has an accent” which argues about how non-standard accents are underrepresented by the media and how non standard speakers are more likely to be mocked and stereotyped. There is a globe inside of a mouth. The way I interpret it is that there is no right way of speaking a language. Everybody around the world has an accent, a unique way of speaking. Therefore, society should stop evaluating people’s accent and trying to change them.

Work Cited

Agudo, Roberto Rey. “Everyone Has an Accent”. The New York Times. July 14, 2018

 

Anne H. Charity Hudley, Christine Mallinson, Mary Bucholtz, Nelson Flores, Nicole Holliday, Elaine Chun, Arthur Spears. “Linguistics and race: An interdisciplinary approach towards an LSA statement on race” Linguistic Society of America, vol 3 (2018)

 

Kroskrity, Paul V. “Facing the Rhetoric of Language Endangerment: Voicing the Consequences of Linguistic Racism.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, vol. 21, no. 2, 2011, pp. 179–192.

 

Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue.” The Threepenny Review, no. 43, 1990.

Cover Letter

During phase two, I have learned a lot of things. Some things that I learned were how to thoroughly cite texts using the MLA format, I learned how to search articles on the library database, which was one of the course goal “Locate research sources including academic journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles in the library’s databases or archives on the internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, and bias”(page 3). I also learned how to do in text citations. I learned more about linguistic discrimination and its effects on society. I learned about how to synthesize texts and do an academic summary without using my opinion. I learned how to do a rhetorical precis, which I think is going to be a huge help for me in my future classes. Furthermore, I learned about how the education system, the media and the courts play a huge role in linguistic discrimination.

In my exploratory essay, “The Consequences of Accent Evaluation”, I argue about how society evaluate individuals based on their articulation leading to classification of people, racism, and linguistic discrimination. I support my argument by using different texts that hold a similar point of view as me on accent evaluation. I also use pathos and logos since certain texts help the reader imagine and feel what the people were going through while being discriminated for the way they express themselves. I also use ethos to reinforce my claim by using academic resources such as peer reviewed articles that are credible sources. I also cite my sources so they can know I’m not just implying things that I have evidence to support my point. My purpose is to inform society about the consequences that can result from judging an individual’s accent. It’s also to educate society about some ways that they can take to avoid accent evaluation and hurting others self esteem. I establish an educative and informative tone for my audience of instructors, classmates, and general public.