Students' Right to Their Own Language

Helena Chiappa
ENGW 1100, Writing Skills Workshop
September 23, 2016
Prof. Young

Students' Right to Their Own Language

Why shouldn't students have the right to their own language? There's no reason why students like me should not be given equal rights to use our voices. We should be free to express ourselves without boundaries and modifications. The only limit should be if a student's language is harming someone else. In the introduction from the Conference on College Composition and Communication, they explained, "Differences in language have always existed, and the schools have always wrestled around them." This should not be a problem because it should be simple and equal for everyone to share their language and speak how they choose. When I was in high school, I knew there was a way to speak formally to my teachers and then informally to my friends. I never was denied the freedom to talk in a non-proper form of English. My own language is important to me because I feel respected by the people around me.

Some football players, specifically at the moment NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, has provoked controversy by refusing to stand during the national anthem before games. This has sparked the question for student, artists, football figures, and anyone in the public eye having the right to freely express themselves. Should there be limit because they are famous? Personally, I don't see a difference. Colin Kaepernick is a human being just like me and he should not be penalized because he is a public figure. Although some people don't agree with his beliefs and reasons, that doesn't mean he should not be allowed to be open about them. He is not harming anyone.

Anyone, not just students, should not have the right to their own language if it is crossing the line of physically hurting someone else or complicating the way another person lives. Freedom of speech, the first amendment, says this exact thing and there are very similar laws in school for students. Other then this, I believe students should have the right to their own language all the time. When I think of RENNS; reasons, examples, names, numbers, and senses, it affects the quality of a student's voice because it gives them purpose. Having a cause, evidence, and people, makes a connection and support behind them so they won't be afraid to speak up. This also gives students their own identifies and diversities because no one's voices are the same.

What Identity Means to Me

Helena Chiappa

ENGL 1100, Writing Skills Workshop
September 8, 2016
Prof. Young

What Identity Means to Me

Identity is important to me because it is something personal that no one else can take away from me. I identify as an English speaking, female, college student. A person cannot take away my identity, my life, language, and uniqueness. I can certainly change my identity whenever and however I choose without being controlled or forced to change. Gloria Anzaldua, author of “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” believed in the same thing. She identifies herself as a feminist, Chicana, lesbian, and Mexican who struggled to openly express her language. Most importantly, Anzaldua speaks Spanish. In her daily life, she was not given the right to have her own identity and freedom because of the pressure to change and speak English. Anzaldua indicates in her essay, “Attack on one’s form of expression with the intent to censor are a violation of the First Amendment” (246). Censoring her language is taking away the right of her own identity.

My own language is a big part of my life because it is how I communicate with people every day. Without language and communication, it is impossible for me to show who I am to other people or my friends. I connect to the importance of language that Anzaldua was feeling because she felt silent and voiceless. When I was younger, I was shy and quiet because I grew up with two other siblings and they had a lot of friends while I did not. I had a hard time talking and making friends because I felt uncomfortable. I felt like no one wanted to hear what I had to say and I only felt comfortable talking with my brother and sister. Similarly to Anzaldua, I overcame my silence because I learned that speaking made me stronger, just like how she became stronger to not be silenced. I finally understand that people would accept me if I spoke up. I was hiding my personality and my identity when I did not use my language.

Work Cited

Anzaldua, Gloria. "How to Tame a Wild Tongue." Teaching Developmental Writing. Ed. Susan Naomi Bernstein. New York: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2013. 245-255. Print.

Reading Response Answers to "How to Tame a Wild Tongue"

Helena Chiappa
ENGL 1100, Writing Skills Workshop
September 5, 2016
Prof. Young

Reading Response Answers to "How to Tame a Wild Tongue"

1. The opening scene of Anzaldua in the dentist's chair connects to the overall point of the essay and title because the dentist is trying to work around her strong, stubborn tongue to clean her teeth. It is another instance in Anzaldua's life where she had to tame her wild tongue. Controlling her tongue has been an important part of her life, whether at the dentist or in school. Personally, the same thing happens to me when I am at the dentist. It is awkward to have someone messing around inside your mouth with big tools and metal instruments. I dread having to stay still for only an hour of the appointment. I can't imagine living with that feeling all the time.
2. At some points while reading, it was difficult to understand Anzaldua's use of Spanish throughout her writing. Mostly, I could infer what she was saying without having to translate the words. Her purpose was the show how she felt having to learn English. The way I feel reading Spanish must of been the same way she was feeling having to read English all the time.
3. Standard and nonstandard languages can be categorized because standard is spoken by the majority of people and nonstandard is spoken by smaller select groups of people. Nonstandard was viewed as the lesser way to speak. The Chicanos had to learn to speak in the standard way because they were hard to understand by others.
4. The necessity of speaking and writing in Academic English as an identity is to be able to communicate with the genaeral and formal way that most people speak. Speaking the Academic English way is neccessary when it comes to the work place and communicating with employees and/or employees and the basics of being a professional.   
5. Various English identities could include the way that people speak in the north versus the south, just as eastern states compared to western states. Different places speak in different ways depending on where they are from. 
6. I can't relate to have a secret language with friends completely, but I can understand how friends could grow up in certain places together and in close-knit groups, speaking and referring to things in certain ways that they only know how to. 
7. I speak in a nonstandard and non-formal way when I am with my friends. I speak a formal, standard way when I speak with my professors and parents. I speak these different ways because of what each audience expects from me and naturally how are society has grown to speak.
8. When Anzaldua says "I am my language." it is in reference to who she is and how she grew up. Everyone's language and how they speak it is different. It reflects how they grew up in their culture and help form their identity.
9. The introduction and the conclusion connect because of how Anzaldua explains in both how her native tongue is unique and in different ways explains how it separates her culture and people from everyone else's. She wanted to give a message that her tongue and her people are strong and they have been through hardships.
10. The language people speak can be a part of someones identity because it shows the uniqueness in different peoples' lives and cultures. An example is shown when Anzaldua says "Chicanos' way of speaking spanish sprang because of the need to identify ourselves as a distinct people (247)." Our differences are what makes our identities.
11. Identity is important to me because it is what separates people from others in the world. It gives people their unique personalities. Anzaldua believes in this in how she speaks of the importance of being a distinct people and having their unique way of life. This is shown by having a "home tongue" and in the end when she writes about Los Chicanos. It is easy to change who you are just to fit in with other cultures so it was important for Anzaldua to say, "When other races have given up their tongue, we've kept ours." It sets the Chicanos a part even though they are pressured to conform.

Work Cited

Anzaldua, Gloria. "How to Tame a Wild Tongue." Teaching Developmental Writing. Ed. Susan

     Naomi Bernstein. New York: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2013. 245-255. Print.