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WLLN Draft

Posted by Teresa Calcano on

Teresa Calcano

Prof. Rice-Evans

10/19/2022

ENGL 110

A language does not define an individual; it separates them from their cultural community. As childhood emerged, my extended Dominican family made me proud of my heritage and culture. Yet, language was something that made me feel like an outcast within my community. As a Spanish speaker, a lack of knowledge of my native language kept me from deeper connections and building a close relationships with my family and Spanish kids my age. As a result of these judgments, I began to doubt my ethnicity.

An article showing Hispanics questioning themselves due to their lack of native language:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/latino-not-fluent-spanish-litmus-test-still-plagues-many-rcna19385

In New York City, I live in a Hispanic-populated community. As a result, I deal with the disadvantages of my Spanish-speaking every day. For example, when I have to translate for my mom, I get anxious because I’m not giving the proper translation from both ends, which leads to confusion and mix-ups. In Washington Heights, a stranger can come to me asking for directions in Spanish. I don’t dare to help them. 

Based on my resume, it can be troubling because I can’t consider myself bilingual due to my issue and past occasions. Therefore, I don’t put it in my skills section. While looking for a job, I question whether a manager can rely on me, so I don’t try to apply for jobs for bilinguals, which have more options and pay.

The Dominican Republic was the destination for a month-long visit of my family last year. Since I hadn’t been there in years, I was excited to return to my home country. As we landed, nervousness set in. It was overwhelming to experience such a different environment, climate, and language. We got to our temporary apartment and went to a mall in the city. As a first-time restaurant customer in the country, I ordered several times because the worker was confused. My embarrassment took over after that because I tried to mask myself as a native but failed miserably. 

During our trip, we slept over at the family’s house. I found communicating with them challenging, but they were extremely friendly and tried their best to make me feel at home. At the local park, my aunt and I went for a walk. Our conversation focused on my plans for college and my future career. Despite my broken Spanish, I remember being able to converse comfortably. Also, I learned more about the country. The grocery store is called Colmado, Soda is called Refresco, and my favorite fast food to buy is Pica Pollo, which is fried chicken with a side. My Spanish improved and somehow made me feel I belonged here. My family’s connections and the learning opportunities I encountered during the trip did not get deterred by the language barrier.

My Spanish does make me any less Hispanic. During those memorable experiences, I realized I still belonged no matter what. I own my truth and continue to learn and love my heritage. 

Digital Receipts/Digital Receipt #4/Posts/WLLN Draft

WLLN Draft/ Digital Receipt # 4

Posted by Harin D on

Harin Dharmasena  

Professor Rice-Evans 

ENGL 11000 

18 September 2022  

WLLN Draft 

To me, my language brings back many interesting and significant memories. I only recognized its significance later on and how it made me different from my American peers in the classroom. A specific moment that comes to me would be one of the earliest moments I can recall, in my early years of schooling. While I was learning to interact in two completely different languages. Which were English and Sinhala, and constantly facing confusion while learning them. Although becoming bilingual now seems easy I see how difficult it truly was for my past self. While other kids growing up only had to figure out one language. Whereas I, just like many other first-generation ethnic kids, had to figure out but also become fluent in their second language. To be honest I at one point was jealous of that but now I see how the struggles of growing with two languages are such a blessing. When it comes to growing up bilingual, it is a blessing in disguise, with both positive and negative effects.  

A specific moment that comes to me vividly when thinking about languages would be when I was about four or five. Whereat home my mother would talk in a mix of English and Sinhala to teach me both languages. Then when it came to outside of the house such as school, I would hear and interact with English alone. Which as a little kid would create a lot of confusion. Later my parents told me that I would not speak at all no matter if it was at home or school. Then resulted in me was a speech and language therapist from five to seven years old. During this experience I remember feeling not only confusion but embarrassment. It made me embarrassed of culture and who I was. Languages for me made me ashamed of who I was, it created unneeded confusion and grit. This was a significant memory to me because later I recognized how different I was from my white American peers in the classroom. It further clarified to me how if I were like the kids, I envied I would not have these struggles at all. 

It might seem easy to grow up bilingual, but it is difficult as a kid. Something many first generation or immigrant kids understand far too well. I cannot speak for all but at least for me in my early years I had a lot of confusion. I recall frequently as a kid reading and while doing so, I would translate a sentence in my head slowing down the pace I was reading at. So, where it would take other kids five minutes to read a paragraph it would take me 10 minutes. Something I was constantly annoyed by and later fixed. This was another significant memory for me because I would wonder why the other kids were not reading like I was, then I realized going to schools with little to no diversity was why the other kids had less confusion. The confusion I think stems from growing up as American but then also connecting to another part of you as well. As a kid, I would say I was embarrassed of my own ethnic background, but now I see it as something to be proud of. What I mean by this is that for me language is not just a way to communicate but it can be a part of one’s identity. 

Language now can only be seen as an advantage for me. It connects people to their culture and heritage, which is something important to people of any minority growing up in this country. Language helps people of any minority connect with the food, smells, and traditions in their culture. Language helps eliminate the difference you feel about yourself in this country. Language not only gives you a deeper understanding of your culture and heritage but also one of yourself and your identity. Now I see how language is such a crucial aspect in anyone’s life, especially those of minority people. My development in languages would be because of my mother as a child she not only made it her responsibility to make sure I understand English, but also the Sinhalese language. She made sure to teach me to read, write, and speak English outside of school while also on the side teaching me all about pronunciation and writing of Sinhala. She was able to teach me all of this from an early age and did so because she knew it would be easier to become fluent in another language if you started early on. She understood that although I was American-born, I was still different from what people consider as an American.  It helped my present self be in touch with my ethnic background while also still being American. 

The ways I see my capabilities in language, reading, and writing impacting my life would all be positive. My two languages allow me to be in touch with both cultures I grew up with, American and Sri Lankan. I get to have the advantage of connecting with people through either language. My experience truly gives me the ability to connect with my race and family, I get to communicate with other people of my culture and learn more about my history.  Being fluent in two languages now I only can be seen as a positive impact and allows for a particularly important understanding of oneself. Language not only gives me a way to communicate but a way to identify with myself. 

WLLN Draft/WLLN Draft

WLLN Draft

Posted by Cai Rong Li on
Picture of JFK airport

Language and literacy are things that people use throughout everyday life. I learned my second language through immigration. 

I immigrated to the United States during my early years in elementary school. Before I immigrated to the United States, I didn’t know a single English word. I didn’t enjoy reading at all since I had a hard time understanding the content of the book due to my lack of vocabulary at the time. Even though my English improved over the years, thanks to my teachers’ reading activities, I still couldn’t find reading interesting for me. It was until 5th grade that sparked my interest in reading books. My 5th grade teacher assigned a research project on ancient civilizations and we need to read textbooks about civilization and eventually create a booklet based on the ancient civilization. At first, I was frustrated because I don’t understand why I need to read books about things that were from thousands of years ago and have nothing to do with me.

“I came, I saw, I conquered”

– Julius Caesar

However, I soon changed my mind about this research project and I became interested in a topic that I thought I would never be interested in before. As I started reading about my assigned ancient civilization, Rome, I found myself lost track of time and continuously reading until the bell rang. The description and images of the Roman civilization from the textbook attracted my interest into learning more about Roman culture. This is the first time that I read nonstop without getting distracted by external factors. While I created the booklet for the project, I found myself actually enjoying the process because I am doing something that I like. After the project, I started to read books about other civilizations and led me to play games based on ancient civilization backgrounds. From the game, I met people from different parts of the world with the same interest and we would roleplay as ancient civilization groups and play against other groups. 

Picture of the game

From this research project, I gained more than just a new interest that carried on throughout my life but the willingness to try things that I didn’t like from my first impression. This experience impacted me significantly because it inspired me to try new things that seem challenging such as badminton and coding, which now became my favorite sport and major. 

Digital Receipts/Digital Receipt #2

Digital Receipt #2

Posted by Harin D on

Harin Dharmasena 

Digital Receipt #2 

Reading, Listening, Viewing  

This week I spent approximately 1 hour going over the Backpacks vs briefcases by Laura Bollin Carroll and exploring the week number 2 assignment. For the documents, I understood each one and was able to figure out how to use rhetorical analysis and what it is. I spent time making sure that I understood everything in the document. I got how rhetorical analysis works and how we use it in our daily lives without having any recollection of it. While going through this week’s documents I was able to focus easily and easily understand what is required of me. I would say that I worked at my normal speed and work ethic and was able to clearly grasp this week’s workload.   

Writing  

This week our only writing assignment was to write a 300-word response after reading the backpacks vs briefcases. We were to take an instance we recalled using rhetorical analysis in our daily lives and tell it to the best of our ability. This took me about 20 to 30 minutes in total to do, as I was slowly figuring out what I could describe as rhetorical analysis. After finding a scenario I was able to describe and depict my response and complete the assignment. During this assignment, I worked at a normal speed trying to learn what the assignment was asking for. I do not believe that I struggled at this yet did my best.  

Providing & Responding to Feedback   

As this is the second week of assignments for this course, I have not really received any feedback yet but am hoping to get some feedback on how to better improve my digital receipts and how to further understand what I need to improve upon.  

Reflecting  

I learned how to submit my first writing assignment and grasped how this week’s task could benefit my upcoming assignments. I think I completed the writing assignment as best as I could, although I hope to learn with future assignments. I am slowly learning how to implement what I learned into my future assignments like the WLLN. I have a basic understanding of rhetorical analysis and am looking forward to receiving feedback on my assignment on how to better improve. 

Collaborating 

Thus, because it is the second week of class, and I have only had such a few times with my classmates, I have not had the chance to collaborate at all. I have introduced myself through the course site and through our week #1 and week #2 assignment. Other than that, I haven’t had much communication, I am looking forward to collaborating and working with my peers in the coming weeks.  

Announcements

Class #9 – Async Only

Posted by Jesse Rice-Evans (she/they) on

Greetings all,

Please note: we are not meeting synchronously today!~

You all should be working on Assignment #2 – Rhetorical Analysis

Make sure to post a draft of Assignment #2 using the approproate category by class next week 10/25! – this counts as your digital receipt for the week!

If you have not submitted Assignment #1 – WLLN to the course site as a post yet, please do this ASAP! Use category “WLLN” when you post.

I encourage you to email me with your questions, as it is the easiest way for me to help clarify expectations quickly. I will send responses to everyone if they are applicable to everyone!

Thanks all! See you on the 25th to start talking about doing research using CCNY library databases and other reliable sources!

Jesse

Assignments/WLLN

WLLN Final

Posted by Ashraf Alam on

Ashraf Alam

Prof. Rice-Evans

8/18/22

Freshmen Eng. Comp. 

WLLN: First Draft 

A recent troubling moment that I had: was when having to write a scientific paper for both AP Capstone and AP Research. Having written loads of scientific papers before that point (credit to my science research class), however, these two papers were different in the sense that the language used and the way we had to format the paper was something I had never seen or done. Also, we were the pioneering class to take this course; there was no reference to go off of, and the papers themselves counted for about 60% of our final grade (the other 30% being the presentation). The hardest thing I can remember was the formatting: we needed to write the paper in a way such that our reference articles (which had to be all scientific papers/articles/journals) “needed to talk to each other”; the style was something I had never seen or written, and to say I had trouble was an understatement.

The AP capstone paper, in particular, was troubling due to the use of different lenses and the incorporation of stakeholders we needed to write about for each referenced article we used. There were eight lenses, but we had to use three. In the beginning, finding reference articles was not complex; having a science research background helped a lot, but the formatting and writing were other issues: I could not “solve” so easily. It took over four-six versions of the paper (all proofread by my instructor and peers) for me to get something decent. The first struggle came when detailing the findings; I was incorrectly listing the work under the wrong lenses/trying to make the articles fit into a lens that did not. Trying to connect lenses when they did not fit was not fun. Considering my paper, how the socioeconomic status of adults and its effects on their levels of happiness in rural China: were viewed from the social, economic, and political lenses was not an easy task. What was harder was the last paragraph: we had to interconnect all three lenses to make them “talk to each other” (this also acted as our closing statement).

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fQRE_gfv1gQET6IsGrYvIJ-W0jtVn5tXlnenu912x_s/edit?usp=sharing

(Paper for IWA (AP Capstone))

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/3/folders/1SgQPBSzeJI8xdZR7rfSuRIizjgaW0y1k

(Presentation used for AP Research)

Continuing to the next year (AP research), we had another paper, but it was our study. We had to conduct either a human subject study or an experimental study, collect, analyze, and interpret data; this was what we were doing in our science research class, but this paper was more scrutinized and harshly graded. The AP research paper followed the same format as any basic science paper: the abstract, introduction, methods, results, data analysis, and conclusion. The only troubling part was that the reference articles (background research) had to build off each other. If the idea did not follow a logical direction, it was marked wrong, and we would not get those points. One article introduced an idea, the following article built on that idea, and so forth until we came to our study and how it was relevant to modern society or our bigger “question”/”topic” that we answered. I had some experience at this point: granted my experience from writing the AP Capstone paper.

The difference between my start to finish and where I currently am today is the difference in my abilities from back then to now. I am more competent in literacy and better know how the English language flows. Without AP capstone and AP research being two of the harshest English classes I have taken, I would not in the same shoes are I am in today. It has also given me general experiences in understanding the author’s points of view, biases, and perspectives of sources within the paper. I am nowhere near perfect or probably will ever be; however, this experience has shaped me and has brought me closer to better writing and reading of the conventional English language.

Group picture of all AP Capstone and AP Research students 2022

Reflection #1/Digital Receipt #7/Digital Receipt #7/Reflection #1

Reflection #1, Digital Receipt #7

Posted by Ashraf Alam on

1) My audience was my classmates and my Professor. I wanted to use formal language for obvious reasons: it was an assignment; however, I wanted to target people who have also struggled with higher-level English courses (AP) to resonate with them more. People who have taken AP Literature or AP language: my Professor, classmates, and anyone reading this piece of work.


2) The first and foremost would be my writing skill and style, writing scientific papers for my high school career. It was challenging at first to develop another style and form that was not always in the active voice/pronouns like I or us in the paper. It was a learning curve for me. I developed analyzing skills, formatting skills, how to make my paper flow, and how to smoothly transition into ideas without slashing paragraphs. My grammar also developed; although I was somewhat proficient and confident in my grammar before, after the course, I understand the formalities of grammar and have a deeper understanding of literary composition.


3) Certain authors and their points of view stood out to me since that was the biggest learning curve, understanding to make their point of view “talk” while trying to prove your point of view/lens impacted my writing and understanding of the article or piece of writing. The context of the articles also mattered since an author may say something that supports your claim, but the statement itself wasn’t about your claim; it only unintentionally supports it. Some may then argue that the piece of evidence does not support your claim: I am assuming that they support my claim without any actual proof.

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