Voicethread

As I was sick for almost two days, I couldn’t make the voicethread activity, that’s why I’m uploading it right now: LINK

"To kill a Mockingbird"

What is the cultural and educational background of the author?

Nelle Harper E. Lee was born in April 28 of 1926, she was an American author known for her famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which deals with the issues of racism that were observed by the author as a child in her hometown. This book led to her being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature.

Nelle Harper Lee, was the youngest of four children of Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch, she was raised in Monroeville, Alabama. Her mother was a homemaker; her father, a former newspaper editor and proprietor, practiced law and served in the Alabama State Legislature from 1926 to 1938. Lee became a title lawyer, he once defended two black men accused of murdering a white storekeeper. Both clients, a father and son, were hanged.

What are the values and aesthetic concerns of the culture of the author (literature movement, cultural movement, society of that time, etc)? And: What important social, political or economic issues took place in the author's times?

Harper Lee, as said previously, once defend two black men accused of murdering. This somehow affected she's style of writing, and inspired her for building the "Tom Robinson's trial", at the second part of the book. 

In this period, there wear a lot of important movements going on, one was the African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968) in the United States that fought against discrimination and for restoring voting rights to black Americans. The genres of the story are:

- Bildungsroman: Is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood (coming of age), and in which character change is thus extremely important.

-Southern Gothic: Common themes include deeply flawed characters, decayed or derelict settings, and other sinister events relating to or coming from poverty, racism, and violence.

Week 8 & 9 Language in Cultural Context

During these two weeks we had a debate about eBooks. Then, we study the difference betwen jargon and slang. Slang is use in social groups, is very informal and can only be understand be people from the group. Jargon is used in specific jobs, and is more formal.

We also so a video of alex, he has the ability to talk fluently in 11 different languages.

Week 16 Political correct language

Political correct language is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts, and, as purported by the term, doing so to an excessive extent. (Wikipedia.com 24/06/12)

This week we talk about politically correct language, and communities. We found three definitions for communities, but the one I like the most was the definition of the Course Companion:

"A group of people that share the same customs, interests, laws or traditions, and language" Course Companion

We also watch a video of "Ebonics", a variation of language made from the African american people

"A Language Without Limits"

This text refers to the variation of English, talking about Chinglish (Chinese variation), Arabizi (Arabic variation), and Canadian variation. It refers to this changes  as a new English  "spiced with flavours from foreign languages". This means that English has "Mixed with so many other cultures and has absorbed influence from all those cultures" making this language richer than any other language world wide. This happen because English is a "amazing tolerant language" and has incorporate words from other cultures, in fact English now has more than 700.000 words.


This changes in language are taken by the author as something positive because people of other nations feel more comfortable with this language, and post-colonial countries speakers reclaim English in their own way to create a new nationality.


This text could be compare to "Ebonics", also a variation of language studied in class. "Ebonics" is the change of English made by African american people, using words like "FOO" for meaning "you silly young man". Though this alteration of English is consider bad because it doesn't follow any grammatical rule.


As a more technical analysis I will identify some of the elements learn in class:
The author's purpose is to inform of the subject of language variation (English), it uses a formal language, with a lot of jargon ("Chinglish, Arabizi"). The tone of this text is a positive one because it talks about the advantage of de diversity in English.

Trip to New Zeland

  During weeks 12-13-14-15, we went to the New Zeland trip, It was a wonderfull experiencia, because we get to know more about the New Zeland culture. We start our journey at June the 24th and we arrive to auckland two days later. We stay in auckland for one day and then hit the road to Wellington. We stay at wellington for about 3 weeks, with our host families. As a group, we visit many places and we had a lot of fun. I had the oportunity of going to a rode trip to Roturou, where I went to  a maori village.

Week 11 Language in cultural context