Running Head: Mother Tongue
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8-4 Summative Assessment Part Two: Critical Analysis Essay
ENG 122
SNHU
Mother Tongue
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The article titled ‘Mother Tongue’ is written by Amy Tan where she has reflected on her
relationship with her mother, with language, and writing. Tan is an individual who has always
been fascinated by the English language. Throughout her life she has come across different
kinds of ‘Englishes’ which she has highlighted 'in her work. She makes the readers acquainted
with the concept of broken English and how it has existed in her family. The goal of the author
is to convince the readers that limited or broken English does not imply a limited thinking and
intellectual ability of a person. So the English language that a person uses must not be used to
judge his or her knowledge, passion and intellect. In the piece of work Author Tan has
effectively and sincerely convinced the readers that they must not judge others who are
different from themselves, based on the English language that they use. In order to support her
arguments, she has made use of her personal experiences to persuade the readers about her
stance.
Tan starts her piece of writing by claiming that most of times people have the habit of
‘judging a book by its cover’. In the literal context, this metaphorical phrase means that before
reading a book and going through its contents, people pass judgements by merely looking at its
cover. But such an approach might not give an accurate picture of the contents as well as the
quality of the book. Similarly, Tan has claimed in her work that people make prejudgments
about others who use incorrect or broken English. Thus people judge others by merely taking
into account the English language that they use and stat assuming about how they are, their
thoughts and their knowledge. In order to support the claims that she has made Tan has used
her very own experiences for convincing the readers that they must not be so judgmental and
use English language as the foundation to judge people and their intelligence and knowledge.
Tan in her writing wants to tell the audience that limited or broken English is just a superficial
element and it does not imply that a person has limited knowledge. In order to support her
arguments, she has aptly shed light on her and her mother’s experience. According to Tan, her
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mother did not know very fluent English and thus she would use broken English while
conversing with others. Due to the use of such English she faced numerous hurdles in life. For
instance, she had to deal with discrimination in various social settings such as in departmental
stores, at banks, and in restaurants. People would pretend like they did not hear her. The use of
the real-life example by Tan in her work gives a glimpse into how people using broken English,
like her have to face prejudice in life. The behavior that people had towards her mother due to
the limited English was not justified as they never really tried to understand how intelligent and
passionate she was. By sharing about her past experience Tan has not only given a glimpse to
the readers about the preconceived notions that people have about others, using broken
English, but she has also persuaded the audience to believe her claim.
For persuading the audience that limited or imperfect English is not the same as limited
knowledge, she has stated that her mother reads Forbes report, interacts on a daily basis with
her stockbroker in English and listens to Wall Street Week. Even though her mother might not
use perfect English, she has never allowed it to act as an obstacle in her life and restrict her
knowledge and learning. Tan in her work has stated that when she was younger, the limited
English that she used limited the perception that Tan had about her mother. Just like other
people she also used to think that her mother’s thoughts could be imperfect because of her
imperfect English. Apart from using her own experience and sharing about how she herself
used to feel about her mother’s English, she has used empirical evidence for supporting her
claims. Such pieces of evidence that Tan has used in her work strengthens her claims and helps
her to effectively convince the audience that people who judge others because of their broken
English must not do so as it could give an inaccurate picture.
Tan has effectively persuaded the audience to stop passing poor judgments about others based
on the English language that they use. According to her, even though her mother used broken
and imperfect English, she was the one who ultimately influenced the person that Tan has
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grown to become today. In fact, her mother used her limited English and helped Tan to make
sense of the world around her. Thus by using her past experiences with different kinds of
‘Englishes’ in her work, Tan has successfully supported her claims on how people are quick to
pass judgments on others but it might not give them an insight into their underlying knowledge
and intelligence.
The critical analysis of Mother Tongue by Tan has been very insightful as it has shed
light on how people start behaving in a judgmental manner and start misjudging others on the
basis of their English language. Tam’s claims and the evidence that she has used to support
them, succeed to convince the readers that they must not make baseless assumptions and
judgements about others who use imperfect and broken English language. While working on
the analytical work, I have made use of a number of revision strategies such as long-scale
revision. The long-scale revision has helped me to focus on Tan’s work and my analytical
essay. It has helped me to align the analytical piece of writing with the thesis statement. Apart
from this, I have used other revision strategies such as reflection as well as mind maps. They
have also helped me to have an enriching learning experience while analytically examining
Tan’s work.
The entire analytical process that I had adopted has helped me to explore the topic in a
comprehensive and integrated manner. which have ultimately helped me to improve my essay.
The entire experience has helped me to work on my critical thinking ability. The learning an
help me to uncover the underlying messages that have been conveyed by different writers in
their works. I can use critical thinking ability and revision skills in future writing activities.
Such an approach can help me to explore a topic in an in-depth and detailed manner and thus it
can enrich my knowledge and overall understanding.
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Reference
Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue.” Read, vol. 56, no. 4, 6 Oct. 2006, pp. 20–23., i i
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