Thesis: All three authors portray the voice of many people, who, on a daily basis, are underprivileged of speaking their own language, thus, emphasizing onto the lives of linguistic minority students around the world and how they struggle to cope in school and at home.

Audience: Class HUM-111 and Dr. Connelly

Purpose: To highlight the difficulties students have at school and at home when it comes down to learning a language which they aren’t acquainted to and the consequences of such, depending on their social background.

Reflection on readings using Comparison and Contrast
Maxine Hong Kingston (Tongue Tied); Richard Rodriguez (Aria); Gloria Anzaldua (How to Tame a Wild Tongue)

In the short story’s ‘Tongue Tied’, ‘Aria’ and ‘How to Tame a Wild Tongue’, written by Maxine Hong Kingston, Richard Rodriguez and Gloria Anzaldua respectively, each author interrelates the issue of bilingualism and bi-culturalism as a personal, narrative-style, life experience. Their personal experience all share the same setting; them during childhood deprived of speaking their own language, struggling to get through school and get accepted in the American society and the impact on their lives as a result of such pressure. When comparing the short stories, it is clear that each individual writer share several aspects in common, as well as differences.

One of the most recurring aspects that each author conveys in their short story is the notion of one’s self recognition – identity – as a child which they do not recognise when they are at school; in America. H. Kingston is Chinese, whilst Rodriguez is Mexican and Anzaldua is of Spanish origins. An example in ‘Aria’ is when Rodriguez says: “…I easily noted the difference between classroom language and the language of home” (286). Here, Rodriguez is emphasizing on the fact that he feels completely excluded from the class. When