Table of Contents
What does Julia Alvarez suggest about language in my English?
She had to learn English at her American school. She thought of English as a harder version of Spanish. When Julia and her sisters were kids, her parents would use English to talk about things they did not want the children to know. She insisted that they learn English.
What general purpose do you think Alvarez had in writing this essay?
The details in the opening biographies suggest that Alvarez wrote the essay to record facts about her life.
What does Alvarez say is her true mother tongue?
BACKGROUND FOR THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY When her family fled the Dominican Republic and returned to New York, Julia Alvarez was ten years old, and Spanish was her primary language. She says, “I landed, not in the United States, but in the English language.
At what point does the author start to understand english without difficulty? In the point of her life when she moves into New York and luckily gets a long line of great english teachers.
How do you think the writer’s felt about how Americans pronounced her and her family’s names?
ANSWER: The writer’s feelings about how Americans pronounced her and her family’s names are ashamed because some don’t know how to pronounce their names.
What is the theme of the story my English?
Integration of knowledge and ideas. Julia Alvarez’s ideas about the English language becomes more positive. For example, she realizes that those who knew the English language were not superior but had learned it like she had learned spanish. She becomes comfortable with English and accepts it.
Why is Sister Maria important to the author’s narrative? Sister Maria helps the author learn not just to use language, but also to love it. The boys in this poem do not all speak the same language.
Why is the narrator’s family in danger in the Dominican Republic?
Why is the narrator’s family in danger in the Dominican Republic? The father is involved in an antigovernment plot.
Why did Alvarez’s parents speak English at home?
Julia’s parents spoke English at home when they wanted to keep a secret from the children. Julia says English was the sound of being left out because she couldn’t understand.
Who was Alvarez’s first great English teacher?
Who was Alvarez’s first great English teacher? Sister Maria taught Alvarez English by making her write little stories as objects or organisms and what it would feel like to be them.
How does a child learn language?
Children acquire language through interaction – not only with their parents and other adults, but also with other children. This ‘baby talk’ has simpler vocabulary and sentence structure than adult language, exaggerated intonation and sounds, and lots of repetition and questions.