Discrimination Based on Spoken English Language

Analytical Reading and Writing 1
Running Head: ANALYTICAL READING AND WRITING
Analytical Reading and Writing

Analytical Reading and Writing 2
Analytical Reading and Writing
The four articles selected highlight discrimination or people based on use of spoken
English language, which differs from Standard English. Such differences usually arise from
cultural and ethnic differences. The thesis in the context of the literatures is: The ideology of
using Standard English language as a benchmark for communication puts different ethnicities
under social and legal discrimination.
The article by Amy Tan shows the way she has grown up amongst different kinds of
English and all that mattered was being perceived rightly. She talks of her mother’s ‘broken
English’ which made her feel ashamed for some time. Language spoken in immigrant families
shapes the child’s development of language to great extent. The second article by Hedley
Thomas highlights the case of an aboriginal woman who lost the case and suffered sentence of
life imprisonment for the sake of her aboriginal communication failed to be interpreted properly
by the lawyers. The third article ‘LEGAL RECOGNITION OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN
COMMUNICATION: THE CASE OF ROBYN KINA’ by Eades (1996) is similar to the one by
Thomas (2006) in the sense that aboriginal communication tends to be misinterpreted and the
subject is victimized therefore. The fourth article by Lippi-Green talks of a controversial case of
a Marathi woman who was removed from the job due to improper or lack of standard accent
despite having the ideal skills of a librarian.
Despite having the rules against discrimination in place, language has repeated instances
of bringing about discrimination against those whose mother tongue is not English. The article
published in The Australian is on a single case which reflects the perils of many such aboriginal
offenders of the law. The chapter analyzing the cases did an insightful work on where and how
the language of communication mismatched with the lawyers and why the woman sentenced to