Anthropology of Language

Before I enrolled into this course, I was pretty negative about it. I thought why must I
take another Anthropology course? To my surprise, I learned a great deal from this course that
opened my eyes to so many unclear things from before. Probably things I would never even
bother ever looking into. Honestly, though, it took a whole entire semester to learn about
language and everything there is to know about language. There are probably much more to
learn, but I am extremely grateful for this class. During the first portion of the class we learned a
great deal about the sounds of language (chapter 3, Ottenheimer). This part really helped me
with enunciation and how different parts inside your mouth, tongue, vocal chords, etc., worked
together to form the correct sounds for each letters and words. Another topic that really intrigued
me in this course was how language and culture (chapter 2, Ottenheimer) comes hand in hand
with one another. I learned that, the way people speak could simply just be the way they were
brought up in their culture. Rather than judging right away whether or not they were educated I
learned to examine the backgrounds of the people involved first. Lastly, learning about language
acquisition and socialization (Ochs & Schieffelin) helped me better understand the different
ways children were raised to speak in each culture. Everything that I have learned in this course
is extremely beneficial to my near future as a teacher, as well as for the rest of my life.
To go more into depth with the sounds of language that I learned in this class, the one
thing I felt was most important about phonetics is the articulation part. It was very neat when Dr.
Needham showed us how the vocal tract produces sound on this animated webpage. I low key
went home and started examining my own vocal tract and how I produced sounds. There are
many ways to produce sounds and each person may do so at slightly different instances. An
example from the text about how important phonetic sounds are, is when trying to produce the tr

sound and the t sound. In certain languages, the Comorians, to be exact, the tr and t sound
distinctions are extremely important. There is even a phonetic chart to help us identify the point
of articulation for each sounds. An example on phonetic chart, is that they have consonants
(sounds with more constriction in air flow) and vowels (sounds with less constriction in air
flow). This helps us to articulate and stress certain sounds.
As a soon to be elementary school teacher, this was a very helpful section to learn about
the sounds of language. It even went more in depth with the sounds each letter makes and the
way the vocal tract works to produce these sounds. When I teach phonics to my young students I
will definitely show them how the vocal tract works to produce these sounds. As interesting as it
was for me to be able to see how the vocal tract works with the animated person, I think my
students would love it also! I have actually taken this information and applied it while I was at
work with an autistic student of my own. I am not a speech therapist, but this information helped
me help my student with some speech difficulties that he was having.
Next, how language and culture comes hand in hand is also a very important factor to
keep in mind. Language reflects the culture of its speakers (Ottenheimer). I must admit that
before I learned about this, I grew up with a pretty biased mindset about the way different people
speak. Most of the friends that I grew up with, to me seems to be speaking proper English and
must be more educated than others who do not speak proper English. I used to think that
people who used slang in their language were low achievers or didnt do well in school. Of
course I learned quickly that this was not the true case, however, that mindset still stuck with me.
In fact, in this section I learned that people speak the way they do because of cultural influences.
This does not have any correlations to whether the person is educated or not. According to
lecture, there is a difference between real culture and ideal culture. This was also very interesting

because, the ideal culture suggested that people give the description of a culture they believe is
ideal. However, real culture suggested that is the actual behavior of people who are engaged in it.
I didnt realize it before, but I too have this ideology of how proper English should sound and
how educated people should speak. In truth, as much as language is influenced by culture,
there are many other things that could also influence language or the way someone speaks.
This was a great learning experience for me, because if I didnt get my mind away from
my biased views, I would have a very hard time understanding where my students come from
and their backgrounds. As a teacher, we need to understand where our students come from before
we determine the proper accommodations that we must provide for them. This was also very
important because misunderstanding these situations can lead to maladaptive language and could
cause personal offenses between two parties.
Finally, the last topic that really ties into my important learnings would be language
acquisition and socialization. In this section, we learned mostly about how children acquire
language from the moment they were born until they became mature. Since I was raised in a way
we would call abusive today, I learned very quickly at young age not to disobey the adults. The
way my caregivers communicated between right and wrong to me was by yelling and spanking. I
learned that other cultures like Samoans, Kaluli, and White Middle Class Americans all have
their own way of communicating language to their children. However, in the end the child may
grow up to be as their caregivers expected or they may grow up to be the opposite of how they
were raised. As parents and caregivers, we use whatever methods we believe to be the most
effective for our children. However, along the way, there are many different factors that can alter
all of that. This was an important section for me to learn as a teacher because I need to be able to

understand the comfort zones of each of my students. Some students may be more reserved than
others, some may be very outspoken.
Overall, this was a great opportunity for me to expand my knowledge on not just
language alone, but how powerful language can be. There are so many factors to consider about
language that I never knew before. Thank you professor for teaching me so much this semester. I
especially admire your enthusiasm for this subject matter, because it really inspired me to
continue learning and becoming more open minded about things. This class has definitely
opened up many perspectives that I havent been able to see through.