https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4 15 Articles throughout my semester in TLPL288C en-us 2018-12-09 03:40:26 UTC 2026-01-25 22:47:52 UTC hello@padlet.com msayles https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312582274 Culture was one of the first things we talked about in our class, and in discussing it we were asked to write a reflection and save it for this portfolio. I included this as an artifact because going forward as a journalist, I will write about many different cultures so it is important to understand what culture means in general and what it means to people. Here is mine: When discussing culture in class today, I learned that a lot of different factors can makeup a person’s culture. Culture is not just about where your family came from or your “roots” it’s a lot more than that. Culture can encompass everything about a person: the food they like, the media they expose themselves too, and the language they speak, to name a few. I also learned that while people may share in components of their culture they also are completely different in many ways when you look at the reason behind the cultural factors. I definitely think that language is a huge part of culture, especially if someone can speak more than one language. I think if someone talks like you, you may assume that you are alike, whereas they could have an entirely different culture than you or background than you. I think that there is definitely a sort of pull in people when they feel they are expected to talking a certain language or even in a certain manner of speaking to retain their culture. For example, I am biracial and I often found myself talking differently depending on if I am around white people or black people so that I am assimilating more to that culture or dialect. I included this as an artifact because it is something that is important to understanding language, which was the basis of our class. The image that we created in class was a tower made of different legos. We chose legos because they are able to be altered and even add onto, which represents how you may change components of your culture or even add to your culture. We also put words like “roots,” “personal experiences,” and “family background” on the blocks. This kind of represented that people may feel connected to many different cultures. People do not just have to choose one culture and stick with it, they have the choice of being a part of whichever ones they want and those factors are going to affect that. The number one thing we discussed in out group about culture was that there are many facets to it and not just one and that it can change over time. We tried to portray that with the legos and the many different words we included so that people could see how much culture really encompasses and can encompass. ]]> 2018-12-09 03:58:29 UTC https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312582274 msayles https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312582551 Linguistic profiling is something we learned in the beginning of class and continued to come back to throughout the rest of our time. The man in the picture is John Baugh, the person who originally coined the term "linguistic profiling." This unit was one that I found extremely interesting and also gave me a reality check. Baugh experimented by inquiring about apartments over the phone using different accents and dialects to observe how the people on the phone responded to each one. When using what is considered Standard English he got much better responses like agreements to face-to-face meetings and appointments. However, when using a Spanish dialect and an African American dialect he rarely succeeded in getting an appointment.  This showed me how serious of a problem linguistic profiling is, and I also related to it as well.  I am biracial, my dad is African American and my mom is caucasian,  and there have been multiple instances in which I am teased for talking "so white," which relates to the idea of linguistic profiling. I included this as an artifact because it is something I have dealt with and something that needs to be fixed in the world in the future. ]]> 2018-12-09 04:04:04 UTC https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312582551 msayles https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312583082 After reading multiple articles about codeswitching within this course, I understand it as switching between dialects or languages while speaking to another person. This is something I realized anyone can do whether they are fluent in another language or not. I have even codeswitched before, especially when I am enrolled in a language class. In high school, a lot of times I would be reassuring a friend about a test she had, and I would end by saying "buena suerte." This means good luck in Spanish, and I did this mostly because it was something I had learned in my Spanish class, and I liked the phrase.  Within our class, we discussed codeswitching in the example of Asian American poetry. The author, Carla Duan, was criticized for her codeswitching within her poetry, and one thing she stressed was the fact that codeswitching does not mean a person is incapable of speaking a language fluently or  is inept, it actually means that a person is more intelligent. I found this super interesting because previously a lot of time I thought when a person slipped back into a native or former language it was because they did not know how to say something in English, but this could be purposeful. It was also shown within Duan's thesis that codeswitching may be used to portray certain emotion, which was also interesting to me. I included this as an artifact because codeswitching is something I have done since learning certain phrases in Spanish and the fact that people use certain languages to portray different emotions really sticks out to me. ]]> 2018-12-09 04:14:35 UTC https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312583082 msayles https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312583751 For my response to an international student, I decided to reflect on Exel's experience as an international student. Although I knew Exel was not going to have an easy transition to life in Baltimore from his native country, I never realized how difficult it would be for him. One instance of his experience that stuck out to me, and I still think of to this day is when he was staying up all night trying to write a paper on a book for his English class, and he could not even finish because every other word in the book needed to be translated for him to comprehend. This discussion is one of my artifacts because I genuinely enjoyed reading about the students and because I think it shows the true difficulty of adjusting to a new life in a new place. I think a lot of times, we may believe we are giving people from other countries such great opportunities in coming to America, and we expect them to be nothing but grateful. However, we forget that some people come here because they are being forced into it by unfortunate circumstances, and they are immediately disadvantaged when they come here because of language barriers and opportunity barriers. ]]> 2018-12-09 04:25:17 UTC https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312583751 msayles https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312584578 As a part of our studies of dialects, we also had to discover our own dialect by taking a dialect quiz. The quiz mostly asked us how we pronounce different words and then provided us a map of where our dialect is mostly found in the U.S.  After we took the dialect quiz, we were tasked with writing a response about the dialect we were found to have and say if it was accurate or not.  This was my response: The results I received from the dialect test found that my dialect is most similar to Baltimore, Winston-Salem, and Newark-Patterson. After looking at a few words from the dialect site, I found that majority of people in Maryland pronounce words the same as the majority for the entire United States. Basically, most states within the United States have a clear majority of how to pronounce the word and that majority is pretty similar across states in the country. I honestly think this is because when it comes down to it, I think there is a standard pronunciation for most words even if people don't realize. However, returning to sociolinguistics, people use different language depending on social factors. So, people that are very in touch with their city or area use the area's pronunciation of the word or even just when they are in their town, but maybe when they are in an academic or a professional environment they use the pronunciation that fits the majority. I do agree with the results about my state. I think they are pretty spot on from what I saw in the words I looked at. However, I am sure there are words that are missing that researchers may not have thought to include or other pronunciations. I also noticed like I said before that the responses from my state matched pretty well with the majority responses in other states. It was very similar.]]> 2018-12-09 04:39:49 UTC https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312584578 msayles https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312585182 A more recent unit we completed was song as protest. Music is one of my favorite things in life so this was a fun discussion for me. We were asked to analyze the lyrics of a song protesting some issue within society and decide if people would need to be native English speakers to understand the song. I do believe the lyrics of the song may be confusing to those who are not from the U.S. and even people who are not currently living within the U.S. This song has to do with the recent spike in school shootings in the country, and some people from other countries may not be exposed to that. There is also only an English version of the song. Another aspect we analyzed about the song was the use of slang. This song does not really include much slang or grammatical errors, but it is definitely true that most songs include them, and excuses are definitely made for the sake of creativity. However, I do not think this is a problem because I think there is a difference between language in a formal setting and language in an informal setting. The question is where to draw the line and that is why I included it as an artifact. ]]> 2018-12-09 04:50:56 UTC https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312585182 msayles https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312585930 For our first project in our class, we were tasked with finding an example of linguistic profiling in the media of a certain dialect. My group chose African dialects and specifically focused on Xhosa. We looked at the dialect within the movie Black Panther. Two of our findings of linguistic profiling were the fact that the main actor Chadwick Boseman had to fight to use the dialect in the movie because the movie's producers were afraid the audience would find the dialect unappealing, the dialect coach for the actors was not even from any place within Africa. ]]> 2018-12-09 05:04:20 UTC https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312585930 msayles https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312589528 A big part of our discussion when talking about accents was how they were different from dialects because many people think of them as the same. Accents are the way a person sounds to other people while a dialect includes accents and grammar a person uses. When learning about accents we also watched videos of certain people talking in different accents. One of these accents was a southern accent, and we were supposed to say the initial thoughts and feelings the accent provoked without actually looking at the video and just listening to it. I realized I do associate southern accents with first less intelligence and second the idea of southern hospitality. These are both ways of linguistic profiling and are stereotypes. I included this as an artifact because I think it's important to really understand why we may have aversion to certain accents and liking to others. ]]> 2018-12-09 06:01:40 UTC https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312589528 msayles https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312590315 There are three primary forms of capital within the world: economic, social, and cultural. Bordieu was the researcher who came up with these terms and explained their relationships. After reading Bordieu's work, it was clear that it is almost impossible to increase a capital without having another form. Economic capital is basically the money you have. Cultural capital is the amount of knowledge you have about other cultures primarily language. If your parents have a lot of economic capital, then they are able to get you language tutors. Having a lot of cultural capital allows you to get better jobs because you can communicate with and understand other countries not just in words but in feelings and thoughts as well, which means more economic capital. Lastly, social capital is basically whom you know. The more people you know and more social circles you are in the better the chance you have to get opportunities from them and just receiving help in doing so., which can increase both economic and social capital. These forms of capital impact language and dialects in that cultural capital has a lot to do with being familiar with dialects and languages of country's other than your own, and if you have a lot of this it increases your ability to be in more social groups, social capital, and you are able to have better jobs, increasing your economic capital.  I included this as an artifact because I think it is important for people to realize they need to be diverse in their forms of capital. It is not good enough to just be rich or to be well-versed in languages. Having all three of these capitals allows people to reach major success in life. ]]> 2018-12-09 06:11:44 UTC https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312590315 msayles https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312590854 We discussed both of these terms as a part of studying language in this class. I was not really aware the difference until a little later into the class although we learned about both. ESOL is English for Speakers of Other Languages and ESL is English as a Second Language. This distinction is important because ESOL is a program that students participate in if they speak another language and are deemed incompetent in Standard American English by a test. Students are asked what language they speak within their homes and if it is different from English they must take a test to see if they should be placed in ESOL. ESL is more of a program for students to develop their English and become more proficient in it as their second language or even a third and so on. I chose this as an artifact because a lot of what we discussed in class included the effect of how language is used and taught on people participating in ESOL or ESL. Some of the time these participants are not exactly fairly tested and are put at a disadvantage to the other students in their grade. In addition, I was unaware of what an immersion school was before learning about ESL and ESOL. I did not even know there were programs like this in schools. ]]> 2018-12-09 06:20:21 UTC https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312590854 msayles https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312666517 The four domains of language are speaking, writing, reading, and listening. Because we have so many ways to communicate, it is definitely much harder for people to become fluent in a language that is not their own. I am currently taking Spanish , and I have a much harder time speaking in Spanish correctly rather than listening or writing it. When people not native in American Standard English come to the United States they are not considered fluent until they are proficient in all of these domains. There are multiple ways of learning and practicing these domains, but it is not a simple process in mastering them. I mostly learned to be proficient in these domains through my parents instruction and early schooling. My dad would read to me every single night when I was a child, and when I was in 1st grade my grandmother and I would read from books everyday. I also played many games like scrabble, boggle, and even a game I made up called the dictionary game when I was a kid. These all helped me to develop my skills with the domains of language. I included this as an artifact because these are the four things language consists of and is embodied by. Without one of these domains of language a person cannot truly know a language or be an expert at it.]]> 2018-12-09 17:13:49 UTC https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312666517 msayles https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312676483 On our second project for the semester, each group chose a different type of standard assessment and analyzed the language used within it. My group decided to choose the MCAT, which is the exam people take who want to go to medical school. In analyzing the set-up of the test, my group was surprised to find that a big portion of the test, known as CARS, expected students to read passages covering any subject matter and answer questions about it. This section is very comparable to the reading section on the SAT or ACT. We found it confusing that such importance would be set on this section because in our opinion, medicine is more about science. This is unsurprisingly the most difficult section on the test. When analyzing the questions asked and passages given, we noticed that a lot of times the test-writers used colloquialism and figures of speech. The examples I found of this were the figure of speech of being "swamped" with work and for "peace of mind." They also asked questions like "All of these statements are true EXCEPT," which can already be confusing for people who speak Standard American English. One last thing about the MCAT was the fact that there were no sort of translations for it or accommodations. I included this as an artifact because it is important that we reevaluate the idea of standard assessments. By using this terminology, it seems as though it is supposed to be basic questions about a topic that everyone has an equal opportunity to answer. However, this is not true for people that are non-native speakers and for people that are native speakers. Non-native speakers must work through any language barriers to prove they are good enough to attend medical school. While native speakers may have been educated differently depending on where they went to school, so it is very difficult to produce something that is "standard."]]> 2018-12-09 18:00:32 UTC https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312676483 msayles https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312681759 This was something talked about a lot by groups during the first project. When most people discuss linguistic profiling, they only think about the negative of it. However, it can go in a more positive direction as well. Many groups that got dialects of England and Canada discussed this idea of linguistic adoration. The definition of linguistic adoration is people having an affinity for certain accents and dialects sometimes so much so that they wish they had the same accent or dialect. Positive feelings and thoughts are invoked when people hear these accents or dialects. The most prominent examples of linguistic adoration in our world are how Americans think of British and Canadian accents. To Americans, British accents sound fancy and classy, and Canadian accents sound friendly. Below is a photo of Harry Potter, and this is to represent the adoration we have for British accents. There are even women that find men more attractive because of an accent they have and vice versa. I included this as an artifact because I think it's important to understand why some accents invoke adoration while others scrutiny. Personally, even I wish I had a British or Australian accent a lot of the time, and even practiced using them when I was younger. ]]> 2018-12-09 18:24:22 UTC https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312681759 msayles https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312685868 SES is a big factor in affecting a person's language, especially in children. We read an article from Hart and Risely on the implications of socioeconomic status when considering language and the idea of word gaps. I learned that socioeconomic status has a direct effect on language development in children. The lower the socioeconomic status the less words a child has in their vocabulary compared to those of higher socioeconomic status. The word gap is very big between these different statuses. A lot of it has to do with exposure to words within the home and also the encouragement a child receives in their home in working toward their goals. This is a prime example of studying econolinguistics because the amount of money a person has or status they have in society is affecting the way they speak. I included this as an artifact because in my own experience, I never really came from a high socioeconomic background, but my parents were always extremely encouraging of my education. They placed it at the highest importance and took time to study with me and even just listen to me talk about my school day, which I believe helped to increase my exposure with language. ]]> 2018-12-09 18:43:27 UTC https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312685868 msayles https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312686698 I am currently a multiplatform journalism major at UMD. I plan to first start as a reporter for a newspaper and eventually become a social media manager either for a media company or a business in general. I will be working with words all of the time, so language will be a big part of my career.  Word choice, style, and grammar are super important to the world of journalism. I have to be able to convey information in the most entertaining way without losing news value. Dialect plays in a role in that I want news to be universal and to have the ability to be understood by everyone so I must take into account that not every single person who reads my stories will be proficient in Standard American English. Understanding dialect and cultural difference will allow me to write with more objectivity because I will have more understanding of different cultures, which is a big part of journalism. It will also allow my stories to reach broader audiences and be respectful to more people. I included the picture below because the code of ethics is center to the field of journalism, and I believe respecting other dialects is something that falls under minimizing harm and being accountable. ]]> 2018-12-09 18:47:26 UTC https://padlet.com/msayles/rjwv23cmleq4/wish/312686698