Essay Sample on Language Users Reflection

I often ask myself why does language matter. Is it because it helps express how we feel or our unique thoughts? Or is it because the meaning we give to the word directs or determines the emotions that we create in the language we all use? Language is used differently in different parts of the world but it will have the same effect on students, like me, who first learned it as an adolescent, then prepared for the transition from middle school to high school, and lastly, to the influence it has on me now and in the future. The most important question that is relevant for me is, how has the effect of language for me as an adolescent helped influence the language I use in my classroom.

To further explain, children can build great knowledge and interests into anything they love; they are constantly absorbing new information every day which can lead to how they feel about it in the future. Growing up I was raised with my four siblings- Azariah, Justin, Earnesha, and Lowell- and both my parents- Earnest and Laduanda Jones. My parents were both intelligent, hard workers and I recently had the honor to attend my mother's graduation from Chamberlain University. My parents were both smart, well-spoken Christians, which led me to read many books, including the Bible, at a very young age. My parents made us read aloud and made sure we used the correct pronunciation for all of our words. I continued to learn more through social media, friends, and classmates, which is how I started to view it differently. I saw numerous numbers of slang words and abbreviations for phrases, like “wyd” to mean what are you doing? This is the age where I started to understand my communities’ dialect and the change it would have in the way I spoke or wrote. Encouraging teachers to speak and write grammatically correct creates a positive foundation for their future and their students. For example, if an employee wants to be hired, they are to set standards for themselves on how they dress, speak, and appear. It’s all about how they represent themselves in general. This is what we called code-switching. We may use slang but we must understand the time and place when to use it.

Furthermore, as I entered into middle school and high school the language I learned set up a basic foundation for how I perceived it. Growing up between the ages of 11-13, I started to think abstractly with reason and apply what I was reading to the real world. Transitioning from elementary to middle school led me to look beyond literal interpretations but the metaphoric uses of language. For example, I could understand if a person was speaking sarcastically or the literal meanings of poetry. In middle school, I required concrete models and needed to connect the lesson plans to my everyday experiences. I began to learn basic grammar in my writing with punctuation, subject-verb agreement, adverbs, dangling modifiers, and so on. However, my teachers couldn’t help me make that connection so that I could remember those tools in high school. This made it difficult for me in high school because I couldn’t recall the majority of the grammar rules, which did not help my writing in the slightest. Unlike middle school, high schools require students to read textbooks that provide a variety of viewpoints. Chall said.” The increased weight and length of high school texts can be accounted for by the greater depth of treatment and greater variety in points of view. These other viewpoints can be acquired, however, because the necessary knowledge was learned earlier. Without the basic knowledge acquired in Stage 3, reading materials with multiple viewpoints would be difficult.”  I don’t think the way my teachers taught me was effective enough because they could have used more strategies like, including social media, talking to us about why it’s important, working with us while we apply the concept to our thoughts, and ask us to reflect on the impact. Using these techniques would help make all of our early learning more memorable.

In education today some of our educators aren’t building a positive relationship with their students. So as teachers go about the learning day, they could miss that one of their students could be having trouble in class. These educators must show students different varieties and learning techniques throughout the school year because not everyone will have the same learning capabilities. Each child is different from another, and so is their learning style/techniques. Thinking back, when I began college I learned that I had a major issue in my writing because I didn’t have the necessary attention in my early education. As I went on through college, I received more help from the Writer’s Studio and they helped me to realize the problems I had in my writing. I continue to work on those problems but now I know to make connections with what I learn. Writing not only influences me but our society by becoming a bridge between communication and the cultures and peoples of today’s society. We are all influenced by the world around us, so that helps us to have unique individual experiences. This is how many authors were influenced when they created many books. Writing enables us to find the things we do and don’t know and hopefully learn the things we will want to know.

This is all to say, writing will continue to have an impact on one’s past, present, and future. Students will start to Therefore I hope to gain more knowledge in this class about why something is used the way it is, so I can use that in my classrooms. I hope to learn new strategies that will me teach my students to make their experiences with English more memorable and impactful through reasoning and unique connections. Some questions I do have are: will these strategies help every student or will they be directed at the ones who need it specifically? Do teachers continue to research more strategies while teaching or do they use what they have learned? 

Works Cited

“Chall on Stages of Reading Development.” New Learning Online, newlearningonline.com/literacies/chapter-15/chall-on-stages-of-reading-development. 

Ferlazzo, Larry. “Seven Strategies for Grammar Instruction (OPINION).” Education Week, Education Week, 7 June 2021, www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-seven-strategies-for-grammar-instruction/2021/06.