what is the genre of mother tongue

"Mother Tongue" has been described as a pop rock and dance-pop song. According to Jordan Fish, "Mother Tongue" is the spiritual successor of " Drown ". The track is a love song dedicated to Oliver Sykes' wife, Alissa Salls. Fish said of the song: "Vocal-wise it's quite a big song.

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What is the theme of mother tongue?

Her writing often explores relationships between women, primarily between mothers and daughters. ''Mother Tongue'' explores all these topics, as Tan writes about how her relationship with her mother was influenced by her mother’s broken English and also how her mother’s English informs her own writing and view of language.

What is the mother tongue according to tan?

Here, Tan alludes to the concept of the “mother tongue”: a child’s earliest language, often used with a primary caregiver, who in many instances is the mother. The mother tongue shapes cognition itself, since it is the language through which the child begins to view the world.

What is the difference between mother tongue and first language?

The term "mother tongue" refers to a person's native language — that is, a language learned from birth. Also called a first language, dominant language, home language, and native tongue (although these terms are not necessarily synonymous). Contemporary linguists and educators commonly use the term L1 to refer to a first or native language (the ...

What is the best study guide for mother tongue?

Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Study Guide of “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.

What kind of genre is Mother Tongue by Amy Tan?

nonfiction narrative essay“Mother Tongue” explores Amy Tan's relationship with the English language, her mother, and writing. This nonfiction narrative essay was originally given as a talk during the 1989 State of the Language Symposium; it was later published by The Threepenny Review in 1990.

What kind of writing is Mother Tongue?

Final Thoughts on “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan Though “Mother Tongue” is a very short narrative, it's rich in content. Symbolism, structure, and tone are only a few literary devices you can use for your analysis, but they are the ones that'll help you get the most out of your analysis.

What type of academic text is Mother Tongue?

academic journalMother Tongue is an annual academic journal published by the Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory (ASLIP) that has been published since 1995.

What is the style and tone of Mother Tongue by Amy Tan?

⚡Tan uses the diction in her work to show the reader her mothers troubles mastering the English language. In addition, her tone is defensive, remorseful, and angry. Using this diction, emotion, and tone she is able to feel what its like to be in her shoes and to see from her point of view.

Is mother tongue a poem?

'Mother Tongue' is, outwardly, a simple poem, but it houses profound emotions towards one's native tongue. Padma Sachdev, an acclaimed poet and fiction writer from Jammu, India wrote this poem.

What is language writing style?

There are four main types of writing: expository, descriptive, persuasive, and narrative. Each of these writing styles is used for a specific purpose. A single text may include more than one writing style.

What genre of text is written academically?

The four main types of academic writing are descriptive, analytical, persuasive and critical. Each of these types of writing has specific language features and purposes. In many academic texts you will need to use more than one type.

What is the context of mother tongue?

The term of mother tongue refers to a traditional/conventional family situation where the mother is the person who transmit the language to the child and is the main provider for input in that language for the child in their first years.

What type of text is academic?

Academic text is a type of text or writing that is written by professionals in a given field and is also intended for a scholarly audience. Language in academic texts must be formal and contain words and terms specific to the field.

What is the central idea of Mother Tongue?

The main idea behind Mother Tongue is the social constraints that defective English can impose, as well as the richness that such English can contribute to literature. Tan expands on this concept by examining her mother's language, her own English usage, and society's reaction to various people's English usage.

What rhetorical mode is Mother Tongue?

This argument is made by Amy Tan throughout in the story “Mother Tongue”. In the essay, she successfully expresses all three of rhetorical styles such as logos, ethos, and pathos. Tan also balances each part of the rhetorical triangle very effective and thoughtful essay.

How would you describe Tan's tone in the essay?

How would you characterize Tan's tone in the essay? -Informal - conversational; "So you'll have some idea........"

What rhetorical mode is mother tongue?

This argument is made by Amy Tan throughout in the story “Mother Tongue”. In the essay, she successfully expresses all three of rhetorical styles such as logos, ethos, and pathos. Tan also balances each part of the rhetorical triangle very effective and thoughtful essay.

What style of writing does Stephen King use?

King favored an epistolary form to produce realism in the novel by using a combination of letters, news clippings, magazine articles, and passages from books. Stephen King also creates identifiable characters that elicit immediate sympathy from readers due to inherently flawed but human traits.

What level of language is mother tongue?

first languageUsually, mother tongue – or father tongue to be politically correct! – defines the first language we were exposed to, chronologically speaking, our L1, the first language we understand and speak. It's the language we grow up with or that our parents (or caregivers) speak with us.

What are the types of writes?

The four main types of writing styles are persuasive, narrative, expository, and descriptive.

What is the mother tongue of the world?

"The mother tongue of more than three billion people is one of 20 : Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, English, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, Japanese, Javanese, German, Wu Chinese, Korean, French, Telugu, Marathi, Turkish, Tamil, Vietnamese, and Urdu. English is the lingua franca of the digital age, and those who use it as a second language may outnumber its native speakers by hundreds of millions. On every continent, people are forsaking their ancestral tongues for the dominant language of their region’s majority. Assimilation confers inarguable benefits, especially as internet use proliferates and rural youth gravitate to cities. But the loss of languages passed down for millennia, along with their unique arts and cosmologies, may have consequences that won’t be understood until it is too late to reverse them."#N#(Thurman, Judith. "A Loss for Words." The New Yorker, March 30, 2015.)

What is the difference between L1 and L2?

Contemporary linguists and educators commonly use the term L1 to refer to a first or native language (the mother tongue) and the term L2 to refer to a second language or a foreign language that's being studied.

What is the language community of the mother tongue?

"It is the language community of the mother tongue, the language spoken in a region, which enables the process of enculturation, the growing of an individual into a particular system of linguistic perception of the world and participation in the centuries-old history of linguistic production."

Is assimilation good for the internet?

Assimilation confers inarguable benefits, especially as internet use proliferates and rural youth gravitate to cities . But the loss of languages passed down for millennia, along with their unique arts and cosmologies, may have consequences that won’t be understood until it is too late to reverse them.". (Thurman, Judith.

Should one translate into one's mother tongue?

Similarly, in translation theory, the claim that one should translate only into one's mother tongue is in fact a claim that one should only translate into one's first and dominant language. "The vagueness of this term has led some researchers to claim...that different connotative meanings of the term 'mother tongue' vary according to ...

Who is Richard Nordquist?

Dr. Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia Southern University and the author of several university-level grammar and composition textbooks. The term "mother tongue" refers to a person's native language — that is, a language learned from birth. Also called a first language, dominant language, home language, ...

Is English a second language?

English is the lingua franca of the digital age, and those who use it as a second language may outnumber its native speakers by hundreds of millions. On every continent, people are forsaking their ancestral tongues for the dominant language of their region’s majority.

What is the mother tongue study guide?

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.

What is Amy Tan's mother tongue?

In the initial section of “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan locates her position as “a writer… someone who has always loved language” (7). She describes the multiple Englishes that she uses, from formal academic language to the English she uses with her mother to the English she uses at home with her husband. The section concludes with Tan’s description of her mother’s “expressive command of English” (7), which is in conflict with her mother’s fluency in the language. Although her mother might speak English that is difficult for native speakers to understand, to Tan, her mother’s language is “vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery” (7).

What is the final section of Mother Tongue?

The final section of “Mother Tongue” transitions into personal reflection as Tan describes how she has reckoned with being raised by her mother in a xenophobic society. As a writer, Tan only found success when she moved away from more proper, academic register and instead wrote “in the Englishes [she] grew up with” (8). The essay concludes with Tan’s mother’s opinion about Tan’s most famous novel, The Joy Luck Club, in which Tan attempted to write in this fashion. Her mother’s “verdict: ‘So easy to read’” (8).

What is the mother tongue about?

Summary: “Mother Tongue”. “Mother Tongue” explores Amy Tan’s relationship with the English language, her mother, and writing. This nonfiction narrative essay was originally given as a talk during the 1989 State of the Language Symposium; it was later published by The Threepenny Review in 1990. Since then, “Mother Tongue” has been anthologized ...

What is the most famous book that Tan wrote?

The essay concludes with Tan’s mother’s opinion about Tan’s most famous novel, The Joy Luck Club, in which Tan attempted to write in this fashion.

What language does Tan use?

Tan references the oft-used language of “broken” English and suggests that her mother’s English and way of speaking, despite its obvious interpersonal and social limitations (including harming Tan’s performance on such metrics as standardized tests), provided Tan a different semantic way of understanding the world.

What is Tan's mother's command of English?

The section concludes with Tan’s description of her mother’s “expressive command of English” (7), which is in conflict with her mother’s fluency in the language. Although her mother might speak English that is difficult for native speakers to understand, to Tan, her mother’s language is “vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery” (7).

What is the significance of SGagwaay K’uuna?

That’s when I started crying. They’re putting on this major film in a language that they’re learning as they’re going. That was really amazing.” SGagwaay K’uuna captured the essence of a Mother Tongue film, not only through the film itself, but through the filmmaking process. The emotional and compelling story is only furthered by the language revitalization efforts central to the filmmaking process.

What is mother tongue?

Mother Tongue is about reflection, representation, and community. Throughout the curation process, we learned that Mother Tongue is not tied down to any explicit definition. It is exactly this openness in expression that makes Mother Tongue, Mother Tongue. Like Córdova says, “it is a term that’s generative and boundless.”

Why is mother tongue important?

Our emotional connections are heightened if the language becomes threatened or endangered. Language is more than a simple medium to express our thoughts. It’s a lens that allows us to make sense of and interpret the world. It offers us the tools to share and understand our own experience.

What is the Mother Tongue Film Festival?

With opening performances by drum circles and musical artists, film screenings in famous theaters around Washington, D.C., and panels with film directors, actors, and language experts, the Smithsonian’s Mother Tongue Film Festival has always been a dynamic showcase of the work of language revitalization through film and beyond.

Why do Indigenous filmmakers work in their mother tongue?

For Indigenous filmmakers, the decision to work in their mother tongue can be an act of conservation, a way to immortalize both language and culture.

What is the story of Restless River?

Restless River (2019), directed by Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu, tells the story of a young Inuk woman navigating her changing reality after being assaulted by a soldier near the end of World War II. Faced with profound life-altering experiences, including motherhood and cultural genocide as a result of colonialism, she is compelled to search within herself for her own strength and resilience. With much of the dialogue spoken in Inuktitut, Restless River is a true testament to the fortitude of Indigenous identity, with language playing a key role in asserting this identity.

What is the movie Waikiki about?

Correa, who was born and raised in Hawaiʻi, described his experience watching Waikiki: “I watched it and I cried. It spoke to the experience that happens to a lot of us in Hawai‘i. The film itself is centered around this idea of mental illness in society and disconnection from the land. I think that is something that affects all Native Hawaiians. We’re always trying to get back to the land. We are always trying to find that connection.”

Why does Tan use "all the Englishes I grew up with"?

In asserting the multiplicity of Englishes, Tan also lays the groundwork for her subsequent dispelling of discriminatory notions like “broken” English.

What is Tan's attention drawn to?

Tan's attention is drawn to the multiplicity of her Englishes by her mother’s presence at a talk Tan gives on her writing. While talking in jargon-loaded English, Tan is suddenly made aware of its departure from the English she and her mother use at home.

Why is Tan proud of her mother tongue?

Although Tan is now proud of her mother tongue, she reveals the reason behind her defensiveness about its supposed imperfection. Tan winces when Englishes like her mother’s are described as “broken,” because growing up, she herself was ashamed of her mother tongue. Tan makes an important observation in this context: because her mother’s use of English was deemed imperfect, the implication was that her mother’s thoughts were imperfect too. Thus, Tan understands the common tendency to assume that the different use of a language implies poor cognition. Based on the way people treated her mother, Tan also began to think her mother lacked something crucial.

Why does Tan wince when Englishes like her mother's are described as broken?

Tan winces when Englishes like her mother’s are described as “broken,” because growing up, she herself was ashamed of her mother tongue. Tan makes an important observation in this context: because her mother’s use of English was deemed imperfect, the implication was that her mother’s thoughts were imperfect too.

Why did Tan choose her mother?

Tan does not fully explain why she chose her mother as her ideal reader, but undoubtedly one of the reasons is her mother’s ability to understand the multiplicity of Tan’s Englishes. Tan has the epiphany that her writing can only be complete when it embraces all her languages—and thus, all her selves. In this manner, the very “limited” and "broken" nature of her mother tongue ends up infinitely enriching Tan’s writing.

Why did Tan go to college?

Tan suspects that, like she initially was, many promising Asian American writers are forced into the sciences because they believe they are not good at English. Anxiety about the brokenness of their English, a poorly-designed testing system, and teachers who steer them “towards the sciences” ensure that fewer Asian Americans make a career in writing.

Why did Tan switch to nonfiction?

However, in Tan’s case, her innate rebelliousness overpowered the limitations set on her. She switched to an English major and started writing nonfiction "after I was told by my former boss that writing was my worst skill.”

What is Darya Ivanova's sister's name?

Darya Ivanova is looking forward to September. She has looked after her little sister, Nika, since she was a baby. Now Nika is starting school. Maybe Darya can find a job with her own tidy desk. Perhaps even a boyfriend. But when an unimaginable tragedy strikes, Darya's life plans are fractured. Stalled. She is afraid. What if she never knows real love? What if she never finds somewhere she belongs?

Why does Darya travel to Moscow?

Darya travels to Moscow to find a new life, a new meaning but to say her life is troubled would be a gross understatement, as although forced through circumstances to be an adult in Beslan before her time, she is far from worldly wise for Moscow. Sometimes tragedy just seems to follow some people and they just don't seem to get a break or fit in no matter what they do.

What is the book The Beslan School based on?

This novel is based on an actual event in Russia, the Beslan School siege of 2004 which makes it even more interesting.

What is Mother Tongue inspired by?

Mother Tongue is a heartbreaking story inspired by The Beslan siege that happened in 2004. I was unfamiliar with this event before reading the book, however after I finished it I fell down a bit of a hole and read a whole lot.

When horrific events hit Beslan in 2004?

When horrific events hit Beslan in 2004 Darya is left with a tremendous feeling of guilt and cannot seem to find any purpose in her life to stay in Beslan. The terrible hardships told in a town broken. The description of the weeks that followed were heart wrenching, the hope, the denial and the acceptance. Scenes that will stay with me now through Julie Mayhew's superb visual and heart breaking words. You just have to carry on reading though this is so compelling.

Where is the story of Darya Pavlovna set?

Oh what a tragic story this is as it follows the life of Darya Pavlovna. Set in Russia Darya lives in Beslan, a young girl that has had to take on the tremendous responsibility of bringing up her little sister from the day she was born, yet Darya herself still yearns to be mothered. Conflicting and mixed up emotions run through her as she is forced into adulthood before her time.

What is Goodreads for?

Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

What is tone in literature?

In literature, tone is the feeling an author conveys to the audience. There can be one tone throughout the entire piece or many different tones. Tan does a great job incorporating several different tones into such a short piece. Now all you have to do is analyze them.

What is symbolism in literature?

Image by Steve Johnson via flickr. Symbolism is when an author uses an object, person, or place to represent a deeper concept. Even though language is not an object you can hold, Amy Tan still uses language to symbolize different, more ambiguous concepts.

Why does Tan say "broken"?

Tan is very attached to her mother’s English to the point that she doesn’t want to refer to it as “broken.” To her it symbolizes home because it’s the English she grew up with. She says it provides imagery and emotions that standard, grammatically-correct English cannot.

What did Tan say when she wrote about becoming an English major in college?

When writing about becoming an English major in college, Tan said that she had always been rebellious. How does she use language in the rest of her story to portray this rebellious ness?

What does Tan say about mother tongue?

Near the beginning of “Mother Tongue,” Tan says, “I am fascinated by language in daily life. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language– the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth.”

What does Tan say about her mother?

Tan mentions several different emotions when talking about her mother’s English. She goes from being ashamed of her mother’s speaking–feeling that other people will judge her family–to being proud of the rich culture behind her mother’s English.

What does Tan talk about?

Tan talks about growing up with different forms of English and how that affected both her childhood and adult life. She talks about the challenges her mother faced with her “limited” English. Finally, she wraps it up nicely with a note about how she now uses those various forms of English in her career.

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