MOTHER TONGUE – BASED MULTILINGUAL EDUCATION

MOTHER TONGUE вЂ“ BASED MULTILINGUAL EDUCATION
TOPIC: MOTHER TONGUE – BASED MULTILINGUAL EDUCATION
THESIS STATEMENT With all the students having a difficulty in coping with their lessons, Mother tongue
–based multilingual education may be
helpful or not in solving this problem.
OUTLINE
I.Introduction
II.Purpose of Mother Tongue–based Education
A.Reasons why the Mother Tongue should be used in primary schools
B.Points and ideas about Mother Tongue–based Education
III.Target learners of Mother Tongue–based Education
IV.Effects of Mother Tongue
–based education to students
A.Advantages
B.Disadvantages
V.Conclusion
I.INTRODUCTION
One of the changes in the basic curriculum of education brought about by the new K + 12 program is the introduction of Mother Tongue – based...show
more content...
MTB–MLE programs ensure that students achieve educational competencies or standards established by education officials for each grade when the
teachers use the mother tongue only for teaching in the early year of grade school, as students are learning basic communication skills in English and
the teachers use the mother tongue with English for teaching in later grades, as students gain fluency and confidence in using the school language for
learning academic concepts. (Malone 3–4)
B.Points and ideas about Mother Tongue–based Education
Language is one of the valuable gifts which have been passed to children. The first language is significant and builds the basis for all later language
progresses. Parents, family members and early childhood professionals have very important role on the development and maintenance of the first
language. Studies shows that knowing one language can assist the child to comprehend how other languages work. First or home language is

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Mother Tongue In Foreign Language Essay
The Use of Mother Tongue in Foreign Language Classrooms In recent years, a discussion has been brought forward about whether the mother tongue
(L1) should be implemented in foreign language classrooms or not. "The issue of whether language teachers should use the students' first language in
their second/ foreign language classroom has always been a controversial one" (Sharma, 2006:80). When looking at the historical process of teaching a
foreign language, it is observed that teaching techniques should not be based on mother tongue. The target language (TL) is best taught in that
language and by the native speakers. It is widely believed that the more exposure to the other languages, the less effective the target...show more
content...
Cook (2001), claims that for more than a hundred years, the common approach in foreign language teaching has been against the mother tongue and
obstructed the teachers and learners to use their native language. However, afterwards, the idea of using mother tongue has been advocated by some
experts, as well. "Moderate and judicious use of the mother tongue is helpful and can facilitate the learning and teaching of the target language." (Tang,
2002) Today, almost every teacher all around the world have a confrontation among each other when teaching a foreign language. While some argue
that the usage of mother tongue facilitate the language learning, some argue that it may have unfavorable effects on students in the process of learning.
This article is to express about the arguments for & against the use of mother tongue in foreign language and its advantages & disadvantages. Firstly,
some teachers would prefer to use the mother tongue while they teach the foreign language. They

My Mother Tongue Essay
Language is simply a tool for people of the universe to communicate with one another and it makes the World more complicated but also interesting.
Language makes you share something, makes people understand you through expressing yourself or your opinion. Starting from the very early stages
of human life there've been lots of various languages which were the ways for the connection among populations. Now, in our modern days we have
many languages from the very famous and international ones to the languages of small communities. Every culture has its own main language and
people value their own language differently from many aspects. For some people speaking in your own "mother tongue" where you must speak the
language of the place you've born is important, for...show more content...
It's something that a person learns from birth, it's a first language, it's a native language etc. But here in the article, it's something associated with the
Amy Tan's mother and her tongue, she speaks her own language, there's a special communication between them. "...But to me my mother's English
is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It's my mother tongue" The author mainly writes about the relationship between her and her mother, and also
the effect of "broken English" in their life. She was born in the USA, California differently from her mother who was born in China and then
migrated to the USA. She describes herself as a language lover, a simple writer who likes thinking about the power of language, creativities,
imaginations, emotions and ideas it can evoke. She's not an expert on English but enjoys being herself with her identity, it's not important where she
comes from or which language she speaks for herself. But, for the people around her and her family it's a great deal sometimes. Not having enough
knowledge in a particular language or being not able to express yourself while you're intelligent actually is a serious issue for those people. She is
lucky about being

Rhetorical Analysis Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan
Rhetorical analysis of "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan In "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan an American writer, shares her experience growing up with the
family where no one speaks perfect English, and how it affected her education and her life. As the second generation of Chinese immigrants, Tan
faces more problems than her peers do. Her mother, who speaks limited English needs Tan to be her "Translator" to communicate with the native
English speakers. Tan states, "I was ashamed of her English" (2). Her mother is like a burden to her, at least in Tan's early years. But the cultural
conflict she becomes the theme of her writing and it is under this situation she wrote many novels and essays including "Mother Tongue." "Mother
Tongue" was a speech Amy Tan made in front of many authoritative scholars who had investigated English literature for long time. Tan perhaps had
great pressure for the experience she talked about is not familiar at all to those experts. They wouldn't understand easily how someone from an
immigrant family felt. Later the speech became a well–known essay of Tan and the audience changed. She was talking to everybody, especially the
ones who speak perfect English. She wanted them to know that one with limited English could still be intelligent. Things behind language might be
more valuable than language itself sometimes. That was something exceeded fluency, vocabularies and grammar. Amy Tan's purpose of writing Mother
Tongue is to remind the native English speakers to respect the "broken English" speakers and to find out the worthy thoughts concealed by the
imperfect languages.
In "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan wrote about broken English. It catches audiences who speaks broken English or a person who has a family member
who speaks broken English. Tan also speaks to another group of people who have no idea about broken English or they don't know the people who
speaks broken English.
Aristotle has an idea that there are three rhetorical appeals people can use to persuade someone else – ethos, pathos and logos. Each of them is very
useful and the persuasion will be most effective when three of them are all used. Amy Tan used all in "Mother Tongue."
At the very beginning, Tan talks about her career, which is a

Essay on Amy TanвЂ™s A MotherвЂ™s Tongue
Amy Tan's A Mother's Tongue
The purpose of Amy Tan's essay, "Mother Tongue," is to show how challenging it can be if an individual is raised by a parent who speaks "limited
English" (36) as Tan's mother does, partially because it can result in people being judged poorly by others. As Tan's primary care giver, her mother
was a significant part of her childhood, and she has a strong influence over Tan'swriting style. Being raised by her mother taught her that one's
perception of the world is heavily based upon the language spoken at home. Alternately, people's perceptions of one another are based largely on the
language used.
Tan was born to a pair of Chinese immigrants. Her mother understood English extremely well, but...show more content...
This was because her mother's version of English and its modified rules caused Tan to be confused on some of the questions.
Tan employs cause and effect when she is talking about her experiences with IQ tests and the SATs. The fact that her mother spoke English the way
she did made it very difficult for Tan to envision what the test was asking, as with the questions where she could not identify one singular correct
answer. In her experience with language, maybe she had heard her mother would say something a certain way, even though, technically, it was not
grammatically correct. Her perceptions of things, specifically the rules of language, were different because of the language used at her home.
She also incorporates problem and solution when she is describing how she had to talk for her mother. Her belief is that people will not take you
seriously if you do not speak proper English, and to prove this, she shows how her mother encountered that kind of attitude often. Tan describes how
she had to call the stockbroker because her mother was concerned about not getting a check, and how the hospital would not look for a lost CAT scan
until Tan was called to mediate. Even though the mother speaks English, Tan still needs to act as a translator.
Compare and contrast comes in to play at the very beginning of the essay when Tan is describing her mother listening to her giving a lecture.

Demetria MartГnez's Mother Tongue is divided into five sections and an epilogue. The first three parts of the text present Mary/ MarГa's, the narrator,
recollection of the time when she was nineteen and met JosГ© Luis, a refuge from El Salvador, for the first time. The forth and fifth parts,
chronologically, go back to her tragic experience when she was seven years old and then her trip to El Salvador with her son, the fruit of her romance
with JosГ© Luis, twenty years after she met JosГ© Luis. And finally the epilogue consists a letter from JosГ© Luis to Mary/ MarГa after her trip to El
Salvador. The essay traces the development of Mother Tongue's principal protagonists, MarГa/ Mary. With a close reading of the text, I argue how the
forth...show more content...
To him, contrary to Mary's belief, his "old self" is not separated from "his current self", rather, he is aware of the fact that his history/past is a part
of his realities. He regrets that Mary "is trying to separate [him] from [his] history." (p.84) and identifies and rejects it as an American attitude: "it
is so American. The belief that people can be remade from scratch in the promise land, leaving the old self behind." (p. 84). Although Mary
describes him as someone who has "actually done something with his life, tried to become a "subject, not an object, in history" (p. 39), yet, her
observation is superficial in the sense that she refuses to acknowledge the very history that is his identity, the one that turned him into an exiled
person. JosГ© Luis's story reaches the audiences through Mary's translation; however, she is incapable of understanding JosГ© Luis; since on the
one hand she is limited by the language and on the other hand she does not feel as a part of his history. She describes her Spanish as "an old car,
parts missing or held together with clothes hanger wire'' (MT, 11) and admits "I couldn't have cared less for politics." (p. 50) Despite the fact that it
is JosГ© Lius's account that shapes his present status, she reveals how at one point "[she] caught[s] a word or two that [she] knew had to do with his
past. Cell. Water. Cry. [but she] didn't dare climb the fence to find out what was on the

English 125 April, 2nd, 2012 Synthesis essay Today we live in a society that is often called a "salad bowl". It is called a "salad bowl" because it
consists of various different people from various different backgrounds. We all live together in a society, but we still retain our own distinct flavors
which helps to contribute to the richness and diversity of society. Unfortunately, today we also live in a society in which some of these groups are
marginalized and looked down upon by others. Hence, often times as individuals we feel the need to compromise the way in which we communicate
our ideas so that we can appeal to the views of the majority. Two authors explore how their attempt to compromise almost caused them to become
...show more content...
Since her mother expressed her words in an imperfect manner, tan believed that her thoughts were also imperfect (Tan 274). Her perception was
also supported by how people in society responded to her mother. Tan states that people in department stores, banks, and restaurants would not take
her mother seriously. They would provide her bad service, pretend not to understand her, or act as if they were mute (Tan 274). This further
contributed to Tan's feeling of embarrassment and shame towards her mother. Tan also describes an incident in which her mother went to the hospital
and was told that the hospital had misplaced her CAT scan. The hospital did not show any remorse for losing the scan, nor did they assure her that
they would locate it, that is until her mother had Tan speak to the hospital (Tan 275). As a reader this shows us how language is perceived and the
role that it plays in the lives of individuals. For Tan it was imperative that she was able to blend in and be like others, so that she wouldn't be ridiculed.
Luckily, she was able to realize the positive influence that her mother's diction bought her. Furthermore, Tan's mother teaches her to think in a different
manner than the other children in her school. Tan states that her developing language skills were influenced by her family and in this case her mother,
hence it affected her

Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan
Despite growing up amidst a language deemed as "broken" and "fractured", Amy Tan's love for language allowed her to embrace the variations of
English that surrounded her. In her short essay "Mother Tongue", Tan discusses the internal conflict she had with the English learned from her mother
to that of the English in her education. Sharing her experiences as an adolescent posing to be her mother for respect, Tan develops a frustration at the
difficulty of not being taken seriously due to one's inability to speak the way society expects. Disallowing others to prove their misconceptions of her,
Tan exerted herself in excelling at English throughout school. She felt a need to rebel against the proverbial view that writing is not a strong...show more
content...
I had to always disprove that Asian–Americans are not just good at only math and science. My capabilities of acquiring a stellar English skill are not
much different from the average American kid next door. Luckily for me as the years went by the doubts began to diminish, especially in the minds
of my classmates. I have accomplished what I set out to do and that was to rid the qualm from skeptics' minds. Slowly I have become more
comfortable incorporating two opposing forces in my life, just as Tan did with her writing styles.
As person living with the gift of dual language, Tan's essay allowed some insight into my own life. She argued that a person's limitation on language
does not reflect their perspective on society or events of the world. The limitation is more of a token than a deficiency, people having these language
issues must come up with an exclusive way to portray thoughts and ideas; therefore, enhancing their perceptual knowledge of the world around.
Growing up listening to my mother's English, I have learned to adapt and am able to fully understand her, even though I constantly catch myself trying
to correct her. The way she conveys her thoughts and ideas is what makes her unique and who am I to change her by correcting her idiosyncrasies.
Although I have become accustomed to my mother's English there are certain things she says that even

Essay On Mother Tongue
Amy Tan was born to two immigrants from China. She fell in love with literature even though she was always encouraged to find a career in the
math or science field because of her lack in English. Tan studied at the San Jose State University where she received both her bachelors and master's
degree. Many others and I can relate to what Tan has to go through with having a different "Mother Tongue" than others. Tan uses the essay "Mother
Tongue" to inform her audience about how we all use different "Englishes" throughout the day. English is a difficult language to learn. People do not
deserve to be mistreated for not knowing "perfect" English.
Tan always has loved language. Language is such a powerful tool that we use every day. "...it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or
a simple truth" (pg. 479). Different "Englishes" are used based on your audience. Depending on if you are at home, work or giving a speech like Tan.
Tan was giving a speech to a large group of people about her book "The Joy Luck Club." She was using a type of language she does not speak at home.
The English spoken at home...show more content...
Going to public places can be quiet a difficult task when speaking "broken English." Tan's mother had a difficult time at the hospital. She was trying
to view her CAT scan results. She used her best English to be able to communicate with the hospital, to let them know that she was anxious to see
the results. All she was able to understand was that they had lost her results and they didn't even say sorry. Tan was called to make her message to
the hospital clear. The CAT scan results ended up misplaced and they were very sorry. This was not the only time Tan had been there to help her mom
communicate with others. Acting like her mother, Tan would take phone calls for her when she needed information. Doing this act made it more easy
for her mother to be able to be understood and to

Mother Tongue
Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan Comprehension 1. What Tan is classifying in this essay is the different kinds of English she uses. 2. Tan identify the
different categories she discusses in "Mother Tongue" almost in the last paragraph, where she named all the kind of English she uses. 3. Tan does
illustrate each category she identifies 4. Some specific situations where Tan says her mother's "limited English" was a handicap is when her mother
could not be able to talk directly with people, or would not be taken serious by the people she talked to. 5. One of the effects that her mother's limited
English has had on Tan's life is the fact that, that was the language that helped shape the way she saw things, expressed things, and...show more
content...
Style and Structure 1. This essay's style is relatively informal. I do not think a more formal style would strengthen her credibility, at least not
necessarily, because more than anything, she narrates a personal experience. 2. In paragraph 6, Tan quotes a passage of her mother's speech. With
this quotation, the purpose that she wants to serve is show how her mother uses the English language to express herself. 3. In paragraphs 10
through 13, Tan juxtaposes her mother's English with her own. The point these quoted passages make is to show how different was her mother's
English from her English. 4. Considerer the expression Mother Tongue in Tan's title. This expression usually refers to the first language learned at
home in childhood. In this case, I think it has a literally meaning, it refers to her mother tongue in specific. 5. In paragraph 20, Tan quotes a
"terrible line" from an early draft of part of her novel The Joy Luck Club. I suppose she quote this line to give an example of she used to write. This
line is different from the writing style she uses in "Mother Tongue" in the complexity; "Mother Tongue" is easier to read. Vocabulary Projects
Nominalized: To convert (another part of speech) into a noun, as in changing the adjective lowly into the lowly or the verb legalize into legalization. /
/ to convert (an underlying clause) into a noun phrase, as in changing he drinks to his drinking

Summary Of Mother Tongue
Linguistic Beauty of "Mother Tongue" In Amy Tan's essay "Mother Tongue", Tan discusses how the way her bilingual mother speaks negatively
affects how people perceive her intellect. Despite the fact that Tan's mother is actually very intelligent and understands more than many people
expect her to, she often is ignored and belittled because of how she speaks. Tan feels that those who ignore and belittle her mom are oblivious to
the beauty, complexity, and richness of her mother's speech. In Tan's essay "Mother Tongue", Tan shows that the belief that standard English is
inherently better than other forms of English is flawed by questioning the prominence of proper English and sharing how rich and beautiful her
mother's English can be. Time and time again, Tan's mother's inability to speak proper English is seen by standard English speakers as a sign that
she is unintelligent; they believe that the way she speaks is wrong and therefore the things she has to say are not important. This belief is so
pervasive that as a teen, Tan herself used to believe that her mother was not smart because of how she spoke. Because Tan's mother's speech did not
follow the rules of traditional English, Tan "believed that her [mother's] English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she
expressed them imperfectly, her thoughts were imperfect" (146). Because Tan's mother speaks in ways that are described as "broken" and "limited",
as a teen Tan felt her mother's language indicated that her mom was simple minded. However, as Tan grew up, she came to appreciate the beauty and
intellect behind her mother's words. While Tan's friends comment that they cannot understand a majority of what Tan's mother says, Tan hears her
mother's speech as "perfectly clear, perfectly natural", and remarks that "her language, as [she] hear[s] it, is vivid, direct, full of observations and
imagery" (146). Tan's friends seem to hear Tan's mother's speech on a surface level; since they cannot understand what she is trying to say, they cannot
understand how rich her language is. Just because Tan's friends do not understand her mother, it does not make the intricacies of how she speaks any
less unique. The tendency of standard English

Critical Analysis of "Mother Tongue" Essay
Nicholas Wiest
Beverly Williamson
English 111
September 21st, 2012
Critical Analysis Essay I have chosen "Mother Tongue" for the subject of my essay. I chose this essay because Amy Tan has a unique writing style
which has tone that is clear and identifiable. Tan makes her arguments in a way that is easily understood. While her tone is sometimes humorous and
captivating, it still clarifies some serious issues. These qualities among others leave Tan's work to be desired by almost any reader because her tone
and style are both genuine and upfront. This essay will talk about how Tan's work in her essay "Mother Tongue" uses several different styles and tones
to make her point of regarding the differences of her communications with her...show more content...
Basically what the writer is trying to say is that if you consider who you're communicating with, and think about how you are corresponding your
thoughts, you can use it as a strong and effective method of communicating in a clearer way. While Amy Tans' tone is carefully crafted and
constructed, she does have her own way of communicating that is unique. It could be compared with hearing a story that is full of inherent truths
from a sage elder, or someone you respect greatly. Tan has a clearly knowledgeable and almost wise way of corresponding her thoughts and ideas.
There are traces of this tone in the text if you are keen enough to notice it (Tan p.37–38). To the contrary of my previous point, this is an example of a
tone that may not have been forged purposely by the writer, but rather a tone that is simply natural to how Tan writes, an involuntary product of how
Tans' own personal experiences have fashioned themselves in her writings and articles. If you've ever read any other of her works such as "The Joy
Luck Club", you can notice a similar tonality. Tans' tone could be described as patient, or fulfilling. The writer isn't afraid to take her time inwriting out
a story in detail, and she has an excellent way of bringing her words around full circle in a way that gives the reader a sense of closure. You can
clearly gather from the text that the writer has put a lot of time and effort into what she has written, without losing her

Mother Tongue Essay
Not all people who speak the English language speak it the same way. It is very uncommon to find two people that speak the exact same English
because there are so many different forms of the language. This is the argument that Amy Tan makes in her story, "Mother Tongue". Tan uses pathos to
portray to her audience how through her experiences with her mother and the Chinese language she came to realize who she wanted to be and how she
wanted to write.
In "Mother Tongue", Tan discusses the many ways in which the language that she was taught affected her life. Throughout the story, she describes her
relationship with her mother, who speaks "broken" English, and how her perception of language has changed due to her mother. Whenever Tan was
...show more content...
Amy Tan also felt that standardized tests could not accurately determine a person's intelligence. She effectively makes her argument by using
rhetorical devices such as, "I wanted to capture what language ability tests could never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her
speech and the nature of her thoughts" (Tan 768). When she said that standard tests cannot determine a person's true intelligence, she was trying to say
how people have different ways of thinking and different types of intelligence, and yet these standard tests only can measure a certain type of
intelligence; therefore it really is kind of unfair, for lack of a better term.
Overall, the main idea of Tan's story is to stress that just because someone cannot speak English to perfection does not in any way make them less
intelligent than someone who is born in this country and understands and speaks English fluently. Tan has judged and has been judged by her
language, and has seen her mother disrespected because of how she speaks but these experiences have shaped her whole outlook on life. Through her
essay, Tan wanted to send a powerful message of how we ought to view people by their beautiful side and not by their shortcomings. Everyone has a
message to say, it may be different from yours and it might be grammatically incorrect but it does not make the message wrong, it just makes it

Mother Tongue Literary Analysis
"Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan is an example of powerful family love that helps to overcome obstacles. According to Reinhold Niebuhr, "family
life is too intimate to be preserved by the spirit of justice. It can be sustained by a spirit of love which goes beyond justice." Therefore, a family is a
large organism that needs to be nourished and maintained. "Mother Tongue" is a sentimental and emotional story about a great writer Amy Tan
and her lovely mother who struggles from imperfect knowledge of the language of the country in which she lives. "Mother Tongue" is one of the
examples of a pure and honest love in the family of immigrants, who tried to identify themselves in the new society and overcome the language
barrier. As a Chinese woman, Amy Tan, whose culture based on respect and veneration of parents, supports and helps her mother on a long way to
tide over her "broken" English. (Tan 119) The connection between a daughter and a mother allows Amy to understand her mother's "limited"
language just by a heart. (Tan 119) Language is a very powerful and strong instrument, but the related blood between the two main characters is
capable to express everything without the words. Amy loved her mother so much and did not want to hurt her feelings by calling her English
"broken" or "fractured", "as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness". (Tan 119) Despite the
global misunderstanding of society and her mother, Amy thinks that her mother's language "is vivid, direct full of observation and imagery." (Tan 119)
It is her "mother tongue" and she is ready to protect and support her in any situations. Almost every family of immigrants going through a process of
self–identification in the new society and suffers from language limitation. Amy's mother faced many problems because of her imperfect English.
Amy said: "when I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she." (Tan 119) Like every normal person, immigrant
need to have a medical support, a bank account and a lot of simple vital things, to get which becomes a big problem because of language limitation.
The accident in the hospital showed how people, whom the ordinary patient

Mother Tongue Essay
There are many bilingual and multicultural people in the world today. For many, the choices of which language they use, and how they use it,
correspond to what social or cultural community they belong to. Amy Tan, a Chinese American novelist, portrays this well in her short essay "Mother
Tongue." Tan grew up in two vastly different worlds, using different "Englishes." The first world, which consists of her close family, she speaks what
we may call "broken" or "limited" English. The second world, which is her business and professional world, Tan speaks and writes perfect standard and
academic English. Having to "shuttle" between these two communities with very different languages has had many different positive and negative
effects on...show more content...
She realized that her "mother tongue" has become their "language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk,..."(Tan 61) Her
"mother tongue" is the English she uses while she is in her first world, her private world, which is a completely different cultural community. As
Tan was growing up, the speech she used in her family environment affected her results on various tests at school. Many other Asian Americans had
this similar problem, and had teachers "who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is what happened to
me(Tan)."(Tan 64) This is because Math has only one correct answer, whereas English was a "matter of opinion and personal experience."(Tan 63)
As a result of this, Tan drove herself to disprove others assumptions and became an English major. She wrote in a way to prove her "mastery" over
the English language. An example she gives is this line, edited from the final version of her book, "'That was my mental quandary in its nascent
state.'"(Tan 65) This is the type of language she uses in her professional life. Her words are "filled with carefully wrought grammatical phrases...all the
forms of standard English that (she) had learned in school and through books."(Tan 61) Without realizing it at first, Tan widened the gap between her
professional community and her private family

Comparisson of Mother Tounge and Everyday Use
Edgar Hernandez
Professor Ali
ENC 1102
March 20, 2014 Amy Tan's, "Mother Tongue" and Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" both share similar traits in their writings of these two short stories.
"Mother Tongue" revolves around the experiences Tan and her mother had due to her mother's English speaking limitations, she also revolves her story
around the relationship of a mother and daughter. Alice walker on the other hand writes a story narrated by "Mama" the mother of two daughters
Maggie and Dee and explains the conflicting relationship she has with Dee, both writers similarly emphasize on the relationships these mother and
daughter characters had and they unravel both short stories based on these relationships. Although both short stories...show more content...
Bother writers also use different point of views. Tan speaks from first person point of view telling her story as Walker narrates through "Mama" the
mother of both daughters. The opposing points go further than writers point of view, the short story 'Mother Tongue' truly represents Amy Tan's love
and passion for her mother as well as her writing. Walker's story tells more of a daughter who despite been given everything, yet has turned into a
undesirable human being and a daughter who in some ways looks down on her mother and sister. In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" she uses a
tactic to set a mood for the reader by bringing in the character Maggie. Walker's use of language when describing Maggie creates a picture of a
physically scarred and unintelligent girl. Maggie's physical scarring is pointed out to the reader early in the story to convey the feeling of sympathy.
Walker accomplishes this when she states that Maggie has, "burn scars down her arms and legs" (Walker 272). Tan also does this in a vaguely way
when she writes " My mother has long realized the limitations of her English as well" which also helps convey the feeling of empathy to the character.
The writers also focus on different point in their stories. "Mother Tongue" focuses on the prejudices of Amy and her

Mother Tongue by Amy Tan
English is an invisible gate. Immigrants are the outsiders. And native speakers are the gatekeepers. Whether the gate is wide open to welcome the
broken English speakers depends on their perceptions. Sadly, most of the times, the gate is shut tight, like the case of Tan's mother as she discusses in
her essay, "the mother tongue." People treat her mother with attitudes because of her improper English before they get to know her. Tan sympathizes
for her mother as well as other immigrants. Tan, once embarrassed by her mother, now begins her writing journal through a brand–new kaleidoscope.
She sees the beauty behind the "broken" English, even though it is different. Tan combines repetition, cause and effect, and exemplification to
emphasize...show more content...
In addition, Tan also describes "limited" as "lacked of certain wholeness and soundness" she is actually stressing on the issue of people ignoring
non–native speakers' voices, pretending they are mute and deaf. Tan manipulates such a common, but influential word–limited– to imply her
disappointment how people's perceptions are just as limited as broken English. Tan then converts her feeling to action; she attempts to raise the
awareness in society, not to look over somebody just because he or she cannot speak English. In doing so, readers slowly reflect their own behaviors
toward immigrants; they should not apply any unfair assumptions on broken English speakers because they are no better than anyone but a judgmental
freak. In order to tighten her persuasion, Tan shows the consequence of people judging her mother's English through the rhetorical device–cause and
effect. In her early years of writing, Tan uses great English and plethora of vocabularies to prove that she possesses the ability of a scholar writer.
"And at first I wrote using what I thought to be wittily crafted sentences, sentences that would finally prove I had mastery over the English language"
(637). Tan said she was trying to disprove people's assumption about her writing talent. However, Tan, herself, was

The Purpose Of Mother Tongue By Amy Tan
Amy Tan is a popular American writer who likes to focus on mother daughter styles. Tan would normally get story situations and ideas from her
personal experiences with her mother. Tan writing on the level of english she had began to make her notice the amount of variation in the english
language. Growing up with her mother helped her notice this with how her mother would speak english compared to her friends and this gave her idea
to write "Mother Tongue". Tan's purpose for writing "Mother Tongue" is that americans can be unaccepting of different languages and often lead to
stereotypes or misconceptions being created. Tan demonstrates this purpose through use of personal experiences while using a critical or disheartened
tone. Amy Tan...show more content...
Tan had wrote the piece in a highly critical or upset tone. Tan never expressed aggression towards her mother's troubles and moved on. During her
mothers problems troubles at the doctors she mentions "She did not seem to have any sympathy when she told them she was anxious to know the
exact diagnosis, since her husband and son have both died of brain tumors" (Tan 1014). Tan brought up how the doctor had little care for her mother
not in an aggressive manner but one of a disheartened or upsetting mood. Another example of Tan showing a disheartened tone was when describing
how her mothers broken english was limiting her potential in the literacy field. "Asian–American students whose english in the home might also be
described as 'Broken' or 'Limited.' And perhaps they also have teachers who are steering them away from writing and into math and science, which is
what happened to me" (Tan 1015). Tan describes 2 separate problems caused by mother's broken english to americans that were serious issues and
only resolved when Tan would speak her english for her mother. She described in a more disheartened tone to match that of the reader. Reading about
her troubles would touch the readers heart in a soft or upset mannar rather than being angry and likely drawing readers to not believer her

Mother Tongue
Rhetorical Analysis of "Mother Tongue" written by Amy Tan "So easy to read"(p.4). Amy Tan ends her essay, "Mother Tongue" with this short and
even grammatically wrong sentence. She tells us this mother's brief review is a proof of success of her writing. Why does she think that easiness is
an essence of her writing? She suggests answers to this question by her essay. In her essay, Amy Tan effectively convinces her readers that "broken
English" is not an inferior language, but just a different style of English that has values in it by depicting her personal experiences and strong appeal
to pathos. She makes her readers to have sympathetic emotions for her mother and hostile emotion for people who was rude to her by...show more
content...
This comparison shows the clear differences between English and its variation, and makes readers to easily figure out what her mother's language
actually is. Although her mother's tongue is imperfect, Tan says that her mother's thought is not inferior at all. She rather tells that "my mother's
English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It's my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That
was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world" (P.1). This part clearly shows Tan's affection to
her mother and mother's language. Tan's admiration to her mother helps readers to understand Tan's mother and to be more attached to her. After she
shows the way that her mother talks, she tells us two stories about her mother that she received unfair treatment in bank and hospital because of her
language. Especially, anecdote regarding the CAT scan effectively appeals to pathos by arousing reader's sympathy for her mother. Her mother went to
hospital to hear a result of her brain CAT scan, but the hospital lost her CAT scan. However, they did not apologize to her mother, and they wanted her
have another appointment to get a diagnosis.

MOTHER TONGUE – BASED MULTILINGUAL EDUCATION

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