Summary and Analysis Assignment

To support your reading and reflection on the readings, you will submit a summary and analysis for the
required readings for each week. Below is a template you are welcome to use, but feel free to use a
format that works best for you. Submissions are due each Sunday by midnight.

Your submission should include the following:

 An APA-formatted complete reference for the article or book
 A summary of the author’s main ideas and arguments. When reading multiple chapters, include a
summary for each chapter.
 Two quotes from the reading (remember to indicate the page numbers) and an explanation of why
you choose these.
 Analysis/reflection of how the reading has helped you to understand the concepts or ideas discussed
in the reading. Make connections with other readings from other classes and also to your own
personal and professional experiences. Tell me what you have learned, what you would like to know
more about, and what challenged your beliefs or assumptions.

Template for Summary and Analysis Assignment (when filled in this will be at least two pages)

APA Formatted Reference: Lippi-Green, Rosina. (2012). English with an accent: language, ideology,
and discrimination in the United States (second ed) Chapter 2 the myth of non-accent (pp. 41-52).
London; New York: Routledge.

Key Terms/Concepts/ from the article and their definitions

 Myth: it is a story with general cultural significance

 Standard Language: is an idea.
 Accent: it is used to distinguish stress in words. It is a specific way of speaking.
 Stress in words: it is the emphasis we place in a specific syllable of a word when pronouncing
it.
 Prosodic features: it is the intonation, pattern of pitch contours, stress, and lexical
components of a language.
 Segmental features: they are the sounds of a language which can be vowels or consonants.
  Accents: they are loose bundles of prosodic and segmental features distributed over
geographic or social space. It can be first language accent and second language accent.
 Code shifting it is the ability to change between one language to another with ease.
 Language blueprints: they provide some intuitive understanding of basic rules of language.
 Sound house: it is the language used usually by the parents of the child learning a language
and it is the language the kid uses as reference for learning a language.
 Communicative competence: it is the ability to achieve communicative goals in a socially
appropriate manner.
 Language acquisition stage: It is most cases referred to the time a person learns his or her first
language or languages. It is between 0 to 7 years old.
Main Ideas/Arguments
 Standard language and non-accent are more related to abstractions than myths. It is an idea
in the mind rather than a reality.
 There are accents in L1 and L2. L1 accent is the variation of the voice between the speakers of
the same L1 language. Every native speaker has an L1 Accent
 Two varieties of a single language are divided by accent when they are only phonological
differences. If there is a morphological difference (syntax, lexicon, or semantics,) it is called
dialect.
 If two varieties of a common mother language differ in the last two variations and differ in
literary histories, orthographies, and geopolitical boundaries, they are different languages.
 L2 accent is when a person speaks a language different to his or her L1 and it is referred to the
breakthrough of native language phonology into the target language.
 It is not possible to substitute the accent of the L1 with a L2 accent permanently.
 All people have a set of tools and language blueprints wired into the brain that allows all
human beings to understand and produce any language.
 It is possible to adjust an accent, to some degree but it is not possible to substitute the second
sound house for the original

Quote 1: Because two Rationale: As someone who speaks spanish, Italian, French, and
phonologies are similar, we English. I totally agree that one of the reasons I could learn all of them
think, it must be easier to is because their alphabet and sounds only have light changes
build a second sound house. between them. Italian is easier to learn for Spanish speakers and
Pag 49 French will be easier for English speakers. All because they sound
similar.

Quote 2: a sound house is a Rationale: I have notice during all my process in language
living, evolving product of development that my perception about second and other languages
our minds, a mirror of our have changed a lot from where they started, this could be for social or
changing social beings. Pag cultural factors. I went from knowing the rules, grammar, and syntax
51 to being able to apply specific context words with different meanings
out from the literal one. Ex: “I am down” can be used for accepting
participate in something. But the literal meaning of the words is
perceived differently if the context differs too, being “I am down.”
Something similar to I am depressed.
Analysis/Reflection
I have always told my students of English as second language that everybody has an accent, and this
article is a backup for that theory I had. I have told them we have accent in L1 because our body is
different, our vocal cords are different and that is why my voice is different from them. With a second
language will be the same, just adding that the accent will come from L1 pronunciation.

In addition, the article made me recall a question I did to a friend here in Colorado ten years ago (first
time I came.) I asked the difference between “as” and “like” when you compare things and her answer
was, I do not know, I know how to use them, but I do not know why. That confirmed me that teaching
or explaining our first language will be harder than explain a second one, because the first one comes
from local sound houses and natural acquisition. Our blueprints about those rules were gone or lost
long time ago.

Template for Summary and Analysis Assignment (when filled in this will be at least two pages)

APA Formatted Reference: Lippi-Green, Rosina. (2012). English with an accent: language, ideology,
and discrimination in the United States (second ed) Chapter 3 The standard language myth (pp. 53-
62). London; New York: Routledge.

Key Terms/Concepts/ from the article and their definitions

 Standard Language: it is the English with respect to spelling, grammar, pronunciation, and
vocabulary is uniform though not devoid of regional differences. It is the widely recognized as
correct English.
 Educated speaker: it is someone with an elevated level of written ability or high education
level.
 Mispronunciation: it is a wrong sound used when saying a word, or the habit of pronouncing
words or sounds the wrong way:
 Misplacing: it is to change the positions of words or letters during the speech.
 Mainstream language: it is the attempt to add a stereotype category into a demographic
variable. It refers to the language of the people who are part of the educational system and
are prepared for participation in settings involving literacy.

Main Ideas/Arguments
 Standard English is the language of the educated people who have achieved a high
educational level, it focuses on people with no regional accent, people with more than
average or superior education, people who are educators or broadcasters. People who pay
attention to speech and are not sloppy in terms of pronunciation. People who are easily
understood by all and people who enter into a consensus of other individuals like themselves
about what is proper in language.
 Like the dictionary definitions, there is an occasional statement which makes it clear that
written and spoken languages are being considered as on and the same thing when in fact
they are different.

Quote 1: People in power are Rationale: As a person with a strong accent due English is my second
perceived as speaking language, people have tried to change my pronunciation to be more
normal, unaccented English. similar to them with the excuse of helping me instead of trying to
Any speech that is different understand the context of the word. They think that because this is
from that constructed norm their country, it is necessary for me to get closer to their English as if
is called an accent. Pag 59 their English were perfect or the “standard.”

Quote 2: People feel strongly Rationale: In concordance with the last quote, people who use their
about their language and are first language with a person who uses a second one, think are more
willing to express their intelligent than others because they speak “better.” They do not take
opinions. Pag 56 in count the effort the other person is doing to adapt his or her
speech to match with a L1 level. They consider it is the immigrant
responsibility to speak as they do. If the scenario was different, they
will not try to talk the immigrant L1 because “that is not the language
of the country.” This scenario happens a lot in call centers which
personnel are Indian or Latino people with very identifiable accent.

Analysis/Reflection

There will never be something like standard language. It is a social construction that cannot be
demonstrated, only theorized. I had the idea of language hierarchy prior to be a teacher. I understood
with this article that the perception of correct or incorrect language is tagged to social class,
educational background, and the status of the language in a global comparison.
Accent will always be part of my language development, I did think I needed to get rid of my accent
but now I feel better knowing that first, It is imposible and second it is not necessary, if I am good
enough to have a good communicative competence and being able to understand and to be
understood, that will be enough for me.