The Classroom and the Wider Culture - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Shen categorically states that his success in learning English composition requires him “not to be my Chinese self at all” (95), and to adopt an ‘English identity.’ Shen’s concept of identity is differentiated into the identity of the self, which encompasses ingrained social values and ideology, and the identity of the mind, which deals with the accepted logical rules, or patterns, of composition writing.

The author’s mastery of English composition is facilitated only when he is able “to create an English self and be that self”’ (Shen, 95). This involves: exchanging the Chinese Marxist philosophy of collective materialism for English idealism and individuality; discarding the circuitous Chinese pattern of approaching a topic in favor of the direct English ‘topic sentence;’ avoiding Chinese pictorial descriptions instead of English verbal descriptions. This concept of adopting an identity in effective writing also forms the crux of Barbara Mellix’s essay, “From Outside, In.”

Mellix’s essay, “From Outside, In,” explores her evolution as a writer in terms of an African-American who speaks ‘Black English.’ She effectively relates the complexities that arise from speaking what are essentially two different languages: ‘Black English,’ and ‘Standard English.’ While the former is her language, which “bubbled in our throats and rolled across our tongues, a balming” (Mellix, 76), the latter is the “language of others” (Mellix, 81). Standard English is reserved for special occasions and formal writing.

Learning to speak fluent Standard English is relatively easy for Mellix, but her writing continues to remain mechanical. As she struggles to become proficient in the written language, she is constrained by the difficulty of composing in Standard English: “I couldn’t think and feel genuinely in that language” (Mellix, 80). Her ultimate mastery of English composition comes about only when she learns to overcome her self-consciousness as a speaker of Black English, and convince herself to confidently assume a rightful place in the culture of Standard English. Fan Shen and Barbara Mellix adopt new, but different, identities for effective English writing.

Shen and Mellix both adopt new identities to succeed in English writing. They agree that proficiency in written English requires the writer to reconcile a dichotomy in identity and “to assume a culture” (Mellix, 84).  ...Download file to see next pages Read More