Inviting the Mother Tongue- Elbow

 

Title of Article + Proper MLA Citation for Works Cited page.  Elbow, Peter. Inviting the Mother Tongue 
Summarize the article — include your reaction, thoughts, anything to help you remember its claims. 100 to 150 words

In Elbows article, he talks about his wish to create a comfortable natural writing environment for his students rather than forcing a specific dialect onto is students. He puts himself in the shoes of a foreign student who’s main language is not standard written english and how he would feel if he was forced to disburse his language for a culture’s language who has always tried taking over everyone else’s culture to make theirs the main focus. He wants his students to feel comfortable properly writing in their own language as well as being able to write in standard written english as a good alternative rather than it being forced on them making them embarrassed of their writing. I like this article because I feel it is more important to encourage the students to feel comfortable and natural writing rather than forcing one standard making them embarrassed to write.

 
Define new terms and concepts by quoting or paraphrasing the original author.

“I’d still be liable not to want to give in to mainstream or prestige English or at least not till I’ve done some hard chewing and unpleasant swallowing. Yet if you don’t find some way around this problem, you will have no success as my writing teacher.”
This is Elbow basically saying if he were the student who’s first language is not SWE, he would want his language to be respected before he feels obligated to write in what to him is a foreign language.

 
How does this reading connect to other articles from class and/or your own research?

 This article doesn’t pertain to any article I read in high school, however it does pertain to many observations I had where foreign students felt as if they had betrayed their culture because they came to America for a better education just for their culture to be completely pushed out of their academics.

 
Based on the reading, craft one question to act as a springboard for class discussion.

Does “proper dialect” truly determine ones ability to write?

 

FASTrack/Writ 101 Round Table

The fact professors truly want to see you succeed is definitely a piece of advice I will keep in mind. My high school teachers, made it out as if they will not help you regardless of what you need help with and that truly has scared me coming in. The second piece of advice I feel I needed to hear was that it’s okay to change and things don’t always go as planned. I haven’t figured out what I want to do and I feel as if I should know already. Hearing that he went in with a set major and minor just to change it to something completely opposite truly relieves a lot of stress.
I most look forward to getting to know my professors because I miss not having many opportunities to get to know my teachers in high school. I am least looking forward to finals.
The advice I would give a ninth grader or even a senior in high school is to soak up all the moments. High school truly does go bye fast and although you may hate the work, you will miss high school so much once you graduate.