Language and Identity
Advanced English
Fall 1999
Tokyo International University of America

home

Final

• The final exam time assigned for this class is Tuesday, December 14, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m.
• You may choose to take a written or an oral exam. Both will be in room 118.
• The oral exam will be from 2:00 to 3:30 and will be done in a group with a "guest listener or listeners" to whom you will explain your answers as a group (exactly like what we did earlier in the term).
• The written exam will be from 3:30 to 5:00 and will be essay-style.
• Both exams will be based on the questions below; if you can discuss these topics, you'll do well on the exam.

1. In some detail, explain the relationship between language and identity. Include examples.

2. Describe how your language (speaking and writing style in general, not only use of Japanese) reflects your personal identity. Include in your answer information your own regional and social dialect. At a minimum, discuss your childhood, your education, your peer groups, and your conscious and unconscious use of both your native language and English.

3. Explain the issues addressed by Ms. Garcia when she visited our class and in the essay "Pocho".

4. Explain at least six ways Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech" reflects his own identity.

5. Are there American Indian languages that are in danger of becoming extinct? Why? Have many American Indian languages become extinct already? Why? Do you believe it is important that more languages not be "lost"? Why or why not?

6. Many deaf people feel that they are members of a separate culture. While people who are blind or severely sight-impaired share experiences and life styles with others in the same situation, most don't consider themselves members of a different culture. How can this difference be explained?

7. Be prepared to use the phrases I gave you on the "yellow" handout to role play (or discuss, if you're taking a written exam) a meeting with a Willamette Student and a discussion with that student about cultural differences evident in a dialogue I give you between speakers from two different cultures.

8. During the last 11 months, do you believe that some TIUA students have changed the way they use Japanese? Have some special Japanese words come into common use among TIUA students? Do the dialects or word choices of the socially most-powerful students influence others? How is this related to language and identity?

9. Be prepared to explain the main points of each student presentation.

10. Has learning English changed your identity in any way? Please explain.

11. What is the most important thing you have learned in this class?