Language and Literacy Narrative (Final Draft)
Summary
In my essay, “Relationship With Language”, I discuss the different roles reading and writing have taken within my life and how it developed. While the events I wrote about in my essay aren’t new and I’ve had these memories for years, through the process of writing these memories down and taking the time to think about them in the context of who I am today I feel as if these events and habits have taken on more meaning. Things like reading on the bus with my mother and reading while waiting for my laundry on Sundays have become more than just childhood habits, but meaningful events that helped me develop a strong relationship with language as an adult.
While writing my essay I wrote with the audience of students in mind. I wanted to make sure that the experiences I was describing, as well as the words I was using would engage people my age. My biggest goal (besides a good grade) was to create an essay that was relatable and easy to understand, while still conveying an idea of who I am and my personal experiences. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t talking in a way that would make my experiences hard to understand, while still being descriptive.
In the context of the course learning outcomes, I think that writing this essay really helped me achieve the first goal of “examining how attitudes towards linguistic standards empower and oppress language users” . My school and my family both held high standards for my understanding and use of language, this empowered me to better my relationship with language.
Relationship With Language
In fourth grade my school had received a grant to completely refurbish our school library. As a way of celebrating, my entire elementary school had a reading competition. Whoever read the most books in their grade would win a 50$ gift card. Each day teachers would ask students if they had completed a new book. To prove you had really read the book, you had to submit a book report and rate it 1-5 stars. For every book you read, my teacher would add a star next to your name on the class reading chart.
At first I was hesitant on whether or not I even wanted to participate in the reading competition. I felt like we were already forced to read so much in class that at home I wanted to play games or watch tv, not read and write annoying book reports. Eventually my family encouraged me to at least try entering the competition. I reluctantly signed up. I soon realized that within my grade the competition was going strong. During recess no one would bother playing soccer or jump rope, instead everyone would sit in the lunchroom trying to get ahead. I started to really enjoy the competition. I also grew obsessed with winning that gift card.
It wasn’t hard for me to incorporate reading into my daily routine. I started by reading books that were interesting and short, and gradually increased the length of the books as I built my reading stamina. Doing this helped me acclimate from seldom reading to reading a minimum of 1 hour a day. It also really improved the speed at which I read. When I first started the challenge I remember 100 pg novellas would take me a week to finish, but towards the end I was finishing books like the Hunger Games within the span of 4 days if I was really dedicated. I started reading anywhere and everywhere I could. When my mom would pick me up from school, I would make her read chapter books with me on the bus. I would read in between washing cycles at the laundromat on Sundays. I would listen to audiobooks whenever I had to walk my dog. I read everything I could find in my school’s library until there wasn’t anything interesting left to read. I didn’t care about the genre, age level, or author. By the end of the competition I had read all of the YA classics like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Hunger Games, Divergent and more.
A couple of months into the school year my school also started its annual spelling bee. I had won fourth place the year before, so this year I really wanted at least third. I decided to change my study methods. I chose to combine both competitions together! Instead of memorizing words from the dictionary, I made a list of all of the difficult words I would read in my books. Later, I would google their meanings and memorize them. Words like “belligerent”, “exonerated”, “prominent” were all on my list. My use of language and words began to evolve without me even knowing it. The words I would memorize slowly became a part of my language outside of school. I found that writing and homework for school slowly became easier as well. I was able to express my thoughts better when I knew more words.
By the end of the reading competition I had read 49 books, more than I had ever read before. I ultimately only won third place, but the competition really changed the way I thought about reading books. It made me view it in a different, more enjoyable light. The competition introduced me to reading outside of school. It also improved my relationship with language, it helped me learn syntax and what good writing looks like. And while at the time I didn’t care about things like grammar and syntax, having an understanding of them has proven to be really helpful as I’ve grown older. Despite my only reading fiction as a child, I’ve found that being a consistent reader from a young age has helped me become really good at analytical reading and writing. And as for my spelling bee, I still didn’t win but I did accomplish my goal of third place. The spelling bee helped show me that reading can really improve your knowledge of language without even realizing it. My relationship with language has grown and developed beyond just being bilingual. Thanks to my family and school, I can not only speak English well but I can also appreciate how beautiful language is.
