1. How is language used to construct one's identity?

2. How do people use one or more languages in various contexts to express their individual identity?

3. How do individuals define themselves according to the practices of a community?

As individuals, we grow up speaking a language or languages. It is generally agreed that we are hardwired to speak. Simultaneously, the language we learn is the outcome of complex and ongoing negotiations with primary care givers and the wider speech community we grow up in. It is, however, often on entering school that we first learn to read and write, and this is an entirely different experience from the experience of learning to speak. Indeed, as we learn to read and write, more or less well, and more or less willingly, we may do so in ways that challenge and conflict the language practices of our homes and indigenous speech communities. For many of our IB English Language and Literature students this is frequently the case; some students speak vernacular forms of English at home, and many don’t speak English at all. Some students ‘choose’ English, and embrace it, whilst for others their relationship to English is many times more contradictory. Thus, for students of English Language and Literature, there frequently exists a twofold dichotomy: The first is the gap between speaking and reading/writing, and the second, most strikingly, is the gap between the language of home and the language of school.

This lesson arises from this idea. It begins by asking students to consider their own relationship to English. In other words, the lesson begins with the experience of the individual. It then ‘builds out’ to consider the experiences of others; here, distinguished writers of English whose own relationship to the English language is filled with tension. The lesson, which ranges across the parts of the course – it is about both language and literature – encourages students to scrutinize their own experience of learning English, and to gain insight into the experience of others. Activities of this kind foster critical thinking and international mindedness.

The Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin wrote that ‘no speaker is ever the first speaker, the one who disturbs the eternal silence of the universe’. Bakhtin, here, is introducing his idea of the dialogic imagination; the notion that our language is always preceded and followed, and may work to constrain what we think, say, and write. For our students, on going to school and in their encounters with English, they enter into traditions and practices that preexist them. This lesson looks, briefly, at three writers – Seamus Heaney, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, and Chinua Achebe – all of whom write or wrote in English. For each writer, their relationship to the English language, and to encountering English in school, is a complex one. Their varied responses to their circumstance – writing within and against a tradition – is revealing, and may help students to come to terms with their own experience of school and the English language.

What is your experience of learning English?

What are your experiences of learning in English in School?

How do you feel about the English Language?

Write freely for ten minutes. The practice of freewriting is visceral and cathartic. Do not stop or hesitate to concern yourself with word choice, punctuation and grammar. It is the unfettered expression of thought that matters.

Discussion Questions:

1. What does Heaney mean, do you think, when he refers to D.H. Lawrence’s ‘voices of my education’? Are these ‘voices’ positive? Negative? Or are they conflicted voices?

2. Heaney suggests that his ‘roots were crossed with [his] reading’. What does Heaney mean, do you think? How, for Heaney, are both ‘roots’ and ‘reading’ necessary to the formation his poetic identity?

Critically evaluate how the author conveys their attitude to the destruction  of the African language.

In your answer you must comment on linguistic and literary features and relevant contextual factors.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, ‘The language of African literature’, (1986). Sample student response.

Student Response to ‘The Language of African Literature’

This passage is about the beauty of language and the loss of a language written by a first person narrator. The passage was taken from ‘The language of African literature (1986); this implies that the implied producer would be the author or first person writer. However, the actual producer could be the variety of editors and publishers that have evaluated the text. The circumstance of this text is to depict how the language of African literature was demolished as a country’s colonized Kenya. The writer would be from Kenya, hence we can assume that the book was published in Kenya, though it may actually be published in another country, interested in the language of African literature. The context of reception, the receivers, would implied to be African people, however the actual audience could range from university students studying literature, teachers, (school) students, language analysts, and many more. The discourse and cultural perspective would be for English speakers who are interested in the language of African literature. Additionally, the discourse can be further linked to a loss of identity through language. The context of production could be to sell the book and the idea of African literature, though in context of reception the message that this passage conveys is one African person’s story, Ngugi, of the loss of identity through language. Fundamentally, the purpose of this passage is to illustrate the importance of what language meant to a group of patriotic people living in Kenya. Nonetheless, the dominant purpose is the loss of identity through language.

The structure of this passage follows a simple and sequential pattern. A pattern that follows throughout the passage is that the paragraphs increase in content. They hold more information as the audience proceeds to the third paragraph, and then start to gradually decrease. This is parallel to the story being told because at first the African people are filled with joy and layers of stories, however they gradually begin to lose their language, and so their joy. This is enunciated through the decrease in paragraph size. Furthermore, there is a distinct flow as each paragraph continues to the next. Each paragraph encloses a story, vignette, or a meaning that grasps an audience. The pattern follows a very specific structure where the first paragraph explores the people who live in this village, the second shows the language, and the third illustrates the value of the language. The first three paragraphs captures the meaning of the language to the African people living in Kenya. The next three paragraphs show the path of the loss of this beautiful language. The paragraphs are arranged in a parallel, sequential and chronological order. The effect of this is large because it captures the audience’s attention as there is a flow to the passage. Additionally, it students to distinguish between the different sections and ideas of each paragraph of the passage. It widens incoming information for a variety of audiences. The structure is parallel to the purpose because of the sequential flow of the value of language and its deterioration.

The theme of the passage and its discourse relates to the loss of identity. From the beginning of the passage the identity of the writer and family are formed. Each night members of the village would tell a story and the difference of the story were shown through ‘the use of words and images’. Soon they started to learn ‘to value words for their meaning and nuances’. The stories were told in their own language, and they were repeated each night. That is why the tones and words used were important because even though the story was the same it was new (due to different words). In this part of the passage we see that the African people really value their language, Gikuyu. Nonetheless the passage continues to explain that once Ngugi went to ‘a colonial school’ all ‘this harmony was broken’. This is because the language he learnt, English, was not his culture. This was when the Ngugi loss part of his identity. The writer changed school’s and was able to learn in his language, but once the colonial regime took over, his language was history. This loss of identity is a dominant theme that is present throughout the passage. Language was the identity of the Ngugi in the first few paragraphs. Audience’s can clearly see that this is evident because of the joy and happiness it brought to the writer and his village. But, we immediately see a change in tone when the Ngugi is no longer able to learn and speak in his language. The loss of identity dominated.

The language of this passage attracts audiences from the very beginning. The writer, Ngugi, first provided information about his family and area of Kenya he lives in. At the beginning of the second paragraph (line 4-5) two short sentences open the paragraph. These two short sentences make it clear that this passage is about language and its power. Ngugi stated that his people ‘spoke Gikuyu’ when working in the fields and they ‘spoke Gikuyu in and outside the home’. The repetition of ‘we spoke’ indicates that there was a mentality where they work together. It shows the importance of their language. The happiness that was due to the language was because they were able to learn in that language and each night they would listen to stories. Visual imagery is used when Ngugi explains that during the evenings they would listen to stories around the ‘fireside’. These stories caused them to value language. Language evolved into becoming ‘not a mere string of words’ but an emotion and power. This was their lexis, their way of choosing words and expressing feelings. This metaphor of explained that language was more than a sentence, it was an emotion, whereby they even made music of their language. Language is personified through this passage as their language developed to have ‘a beauty of its own’. They used ‘images and symbols’ that enabled them to perceive, view and interpret the world. This personification made language a power and lifestyle. A sharp change in tone dominates the passage when Ngugi describes that this ‘harmony’ ended. This was when he changed school. However, the impact was greatest when all the schools had to be run by the ‘colonial regime’. This change in tone and feeling would impact an audience because Ngugi made it clear that language meant everything, and now that it was being removed elicited sad emotions. The culture in Kenya was a collectivist one where everyone worked together like one big family. The beauty of this was that it was what language meant to them. This can be seen through the poem when inclusive pronouns are used such as ‘us’, ‘we’, ‘as a whole’. Language meant everything. Once Kenya was colonized English became the language of Ngugi’s education. The last sentence of the whole passage would give rise to the biggest impact towards an audience. It is when the audience fully realizes that Ngugi’s identity was loss. He stated that ‘English became more than a language: it was the language’. The italics of the word ‘the’ gave rise to a literary feature to do with punctuation that put emphasis on the word. English became the language of power as ‘all others had to bow before it.’ Personification of language was used here to establish the significance of one culture’s loss of power through language and another culture’s gain of power. It also creates visual imagery and evokes emotion because it confirms the notion that the Gikuyu language is no more. An audience interested in literature or for student, it could provide then with CONCERN, that language was so important for this African people of Kenya. They can sympathize and empathize with them. Essentially, this links to the purpose of the article which was the lost of identity. However, it also gives rise to concern that is a direct response from an audience towards this passage.

In conclusion, the structure, language, theme, and techniques evokes emotion, concern and a learning experience through a variety of audiences. I felt that this article made me realize the important of language. It made me empathize with people who have to learn a new language and forget their own. With language comes a history and an identity. The loss of identity is a loss of part of one’s self. We sometimes take language, our identity and heritage for advantage and this is why we don’t realize the impact of it until it is gone. This passage explains the significance and power of language.