English 2150 Blog

“I Am Articulate“
by Jamila Lysicott

Summary: In this poem, the author mentions that she has three different ways of speaking and how they all make her articulate. She has a way of speaking in school, with her family, and with her friends. She talks about English as being multi faceted and having many different tones. She notes that even when Americans speak “articulate English” they sound foolish to the British. She notes that being able to have 3 different tones of the same language shouldn’t be something that is looked down on but should be a celebration. She is trying to tell us that being articulate doesn’t mean speaking “proper English” but it is about being able to interpret different tones and languages. She is articulate in her own way because she is able to converse with more groups of people.

Evaluation: I think that she has a really good point with mentioning the different ways someone can be articulate. She notes that there are three different languages that she speaks and it should be looked at as a celebration. Whether we speak hood or formal that does not determine how proper or formal we are. It depends on the location and time of things, when talking to friends we will speak in a informal tone and when speaking in a professional manner we speak formal.

Codeswitching: An Examination of Naturally Occurring Conversation — Rosamina Lowi

Summary: In this article the author talks about a process called “code switching”. This process is the way of switching languages and tones when communicating with different people. She also looks at the tone as a significant way of expressing thoughts. The way in which somebody speaks a language is important in conveying the message. She interviewed many different individuals who are bilingual and frequently used the code switching technique in their lives. Some individuals pointed out that it was beneficial to know different languages because it was used for different purposes. From the data there was a lot of mixed data.

Evaluation: This data has a lot to do with my own data because I do speak two different languages. As one of the individuals pointed out speaking a different language is beneficial because it is used in different purposes of communication. Tone is also an important aspect when speaking because it presents the informal or formailty of a conversation.

Data collection for October 12, 12 p.m. to October 13, 12 p.m:

12 pm to 4 pm:

• Texted my cousin in semi formal Bengali about random things
• Spoke to my dad over the phone in a semi formal Bengali and English
• Told my mom I was buying lunch from outside
• Ordered my food with the people in the restaurant in a formal manner
• Texted my friends in slang English about fantasy football
• Texted my mom that I was leaving to go to college

5 pm to 8 pm:

• Spoke to my friends about the readings we had to do for the class
• Spoke to other classmates about the exam we had the class before
• Texted my brother right before class about random issues

8 pm to 11 pm

• Came home and spoke to my cousin about random things
• Talked to my dad over the phone about random issues
• Ate dinner with my family and spoke in semi formal English
• Spoke to my cousins and brother in semi formal English
• Texted friends about random things going on

11 pm to 8 am

• Sleep

8 am to 12 pm

• Ate breakfast and told my mom I was going to college
• Spoke to my group about starting our project
• Texted my friends and cousins about random things