Stop Making Sense: Issues With Language and Grammar in Multiculturalism

The ideas within my analysis did resonate with others, as other people within the class did ponder the difference between the different ways we teach writing and how we can bridge a gap between these differences. Ideas of multiculturalism and the ways we teach/correct writing were also present within the video that we watched “Shit + Awk + Frag + Huh?”, which looked at how teachers criticize writing across different genders and races, and whether or not this criticism is fair or unfair. The idea that our identity, language, and voice are embedded in other people’s expectations came about as a result of that, which is something I did not consider but largely holds up within the context of the video as well as my TIRP. 

A lot of other people within the class mostly seem to have analyzed grammar and writing style as an important idea, specifically how we vary and how we tend to favor “correct” grammar and how the definition of “correct” grammar varies. This correlates with my assertion within my TIRP about grammar present within students who are still learning English that grammar should be separated from actual criticism of the work. Lu, in Professing Multiculturalism, calls upon her students to call “attention to the difference between form and meaning”, which is a wise approach to undertake, as it allows us to be more accepting of those who have ideas to express that sometimes don’t have a command of form that we find acceptable. This also connects to the idea that language is embedded in other people’s expectations: just because a piece of writing doesn’t fit a certain person’s idea of correct grammar or form doesn’t mean that it is a bad piece of writing that doesn’t properly relegate a message. 

An idea that I touched on but never actually addressed within m TIRP is the idea of “native” and “non-native” speakers as being inherently problematic. I use both of those phrases in my TIRP without actually looking at them, though, when looking back and looking at the discussion we had during class, I’m starting to realize those were two terms that I could have unpacked more and deconstructed, to think more about those terms and how I view them versus how they are utilized. They are tied to assumptions that are unfair, more than actual practices. While I used those terms mostly to refer to the latter, it’s still important to point out the difference between the two ideas and how subscribing to the former can often lead to discrimination and ethnocentrism, for example, the idea that English should be the official language of the US. Further unpacking of these terms would have led to a better understanding of multicultural differences with regards to language and would have further deepened my analysis.