Baldwin’s argument states that language is crucial to identity and speaking reveals our identity, background, and upbringing. She brings up how it’s hard to understand people from different regions, even if they speak the same language. Furthermore, “Black English ” refers to black diaspora, which was a term used in the 90s that described the displacement of enslaved black people over 15 different places on the globe. Their language was created as a necessity for enslaved people for survival. Baldwin’s argument relates to Belmihoub and Corcoran’s ideas since they bring up the idea of translanguaging being used as a form of communication based on current situations. This relates to Baldwin’s argument that Black Enslaved Peoples created their own way of communicating in order to talk to each other without the people who were harming them understanding. It was a survival tactic. According to “Translingualism…” (JTC 61), “Translanguaging suggests that language is always a negotiation between the linguistic features that speakers already know and the communicative situations in which they find themselves.” (page 65)
There are several pieces of advice in Straub’s essay that I found helpful. This includes focusing on what was learned in class, understanding the importance of drafting, and concentrating what was interesting/confusing. Many times, I see students trying to act as teacher’s when reading over someone’s work and I’m glad Straub brings that up. When reading a piece of literature, it’s important to look back on what was taught in class and how the writer demonstrated that skill or lacked it. I wish my teachers in the past would understand the stages of drafting and look at the big picture. It’s helpful to give guidance on the arrangement and pacing of the work opposed to spelling and grammatical errors.