Ethnicity Affects On Speaking

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Ethnicity Affects on Speaking In America today, families with foreign backgrounds are suffering greatly in our English speaking society because they don’t speak America’s public language. Children in these types of families have trouble speaking in school because English is foreign to them. A student’s ability to speak in an academic environment can be affected by several different factors. Characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, and personality can cause students to be shy and unsuccessful in an academic environment. These characteristics can extremely impinge on a person’s ability to speak in school because they take a student out of their comfort zone and make it difficult for them to speak in front of others. Essays written by Maxine Hong Kingston, Marjorie Agosin, and Richard Rodriguez describe stories about their struggles in situations where they speak a language different from the majority of society. By using these essays I will prove that ethnicity is a main cause that affects one’s ability to speak in an academic environment. In her essay “Tongue Tied”, Kingston explains her difficulty speaking in school as a Chinese student and her silence in class. She states,” During the first silent year I spoke to no one at school, did not ask before going to the lavatory, and flunked kindergarten” (514). It was difficult for Kingston to speak in class for a couple of reasons. First, Kingston’s parents could not speak and understand English. She portrays a conversation her parents had with her teachers,” The teachers…, talked serious too, but my parents did not understand English” (514). Her parents only speaking Chinese had a huge impact on Kingston’s ability to speak in school. In addition, being of Chinese descent played a large role in her academic silence. Kingston explains the difficulty other Chinese students had talking in class:”The other
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