Daina Goldenberg

HONORS 394: Language that Binds Us

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         This course was a journey through many, many topics, including heritage language use and language policy and maintenance. Dr. Soohee Kim was unlike any professor I had had before, specifically because of her actively positive and empathetic spirit, and her insistence against delivering direct lectures to the class. She helped us create lenses for looking at communities' language experiences with sensitivity, and she challenged us to build our personal views on language maintenance and attrition. I was particularly interested in this course as a writing tutor at the OWRC: at the center, we enjoy sessions with many, many International Students, who have a wealth of specialized knowledge and critical perspectives to offer in their courses. However, they are often penalized in many different departments for even very minor errors in "proper" English grammar, which becomes a source of anxiety and frustration for many users of the OWRC.  I believe that in such a diverse school as the UW, academic departments need to try to maintain open-mindedness about not only the language backgrounds students have to offer (International students are coming to school with working proficiency in two and often more languages), but the vastly different writing cultures they have experienced. My final works in the course were based more strictly on the issue of heritage language attrition, rather than university writing practices and critique, to keep more closely with Dr. Kim's theme for the class. Regardless, I feel like I walked out of class more thoughtful and cognizant of the complex languages and cultures of stduents around me. Below, please find a link that offers a final class portfolio of most of the assignments, projects, and reflections completed in the course. 

 

Click Here to Access the The Honors 394 Portfolio Website