Cover Letter

Dear Professor Garfinkel,

        Good day. Please, I hope all is well. Today, I will discuss my reflection for the Phase 2 assignment. Without further ado, I shall begin. With this assignment, one thing that I reflected on was the factor of perspective in literacy.  

        When my interviewer, Michael, asked me questions, I was amazed. He asked what other languages I learned, my opinion and journey in Minecraft, and why I wanted to learn Spanish. The unique thing is that these questions showed Michael’s interest in learning more about the person, me, who wrote the essay. With this, I returned the sentiment when I interviewed Michael. Michael’s interview was not about interviewing someone only for writing but to learn more about the person in front of you or, in this case, a friend. Also, I realized that while I wrote this assignment, being accurate was just as important as making sure that Michael’s personality was there in my writing as well, as this will allow the reader to understand the choices Michael made and know who Michael is as a person. Therefore, purpose and audience are the most impactful to my learning during this phase. For this purpose, I needed to understand that my purpose was to talk more about Michael’s writing and make my writing shed light more on Michael as a person.  About the audience, the people I had in mind were similar to the audience Michael had in mind. The audience was you, Professor Garfinkel, people with a similar background to my interviewer, and anyone who knows Michael. One of my audiences, people who know Michael, connects with one of the Course Learning Outcomes I achieved in Phase 2: to develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes. When I reviewed with Michael, I learned how he put my personality in his writing to make the audience understand the story. He portrayed the author, me, how most people would know me and made me see that I would have to write considering the audience we want to reach out to and to people who know us. 

        Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoy “The Combined Speed of Mother and Son Phasing Through Communication Barriers.”

Sincerely,

Michael

The Combined Speed of Mother and Son Phasing Through Communication Barriers

        “Good morning Mike! What time you will start,” an inquiry from his mother on the first day of school that echoed in the mind of Michael Abayev. The question was nothing out of the ordinary to Mr. Abayev. That day was his first, of many, of school, specifically college. So, what made the mind of Mr.Abayev keep on running laps around such inquiry this time around? The grammatical structure. While his mind sprinted through the sentence with ease, the grammatical structure still left Mr.Abayev pondering, as if he was looking back on the road he and his mother ran to reach this pinnacle point. Though his thoughts of the start of college were filled by how the grammatical structure of the sentences was off, said sentence made him reminisce on the journey he and his mother faced with English, resulting in his muse for the essay “Multimodal Language and Literacy Narrative” being formed.

        Michael Abayev, a young runner and U1 at the Sophie Davis Biomedical Education Program at City College, was tasked with writing about facing challenges with language. He picked the challenge he and his mother faced with the English language. “She only learned it [English] in school. She was not able to like, speak fluently,” said Mr. Abayev. Mr.Abayev utilizes pathos to describe how the difference in the English of his mother impacted the daily life both experienced. Using pathos, Mr. Abayev wants the reader to empathize with him so people who have not experienced what Mr.Abayev has can perceive a track filled with possible hindrances that will give one a second wind on the views of language. Everyone’s track for language is not always a straight white line but can be curved and rich in colors of culture. With pathos, Mr. Abayev wishes to bring awareness that everyone’s track for language vastly differs.

        In Mr.Abayev’s essay  “Multimodal Language and Literacy Narrative,” Mr. Abayev discusses his feelings towards his mother’s broken English and his journey with English himself. Initially, he struggled with the English language due to his family’s English opposing how the teachers in school taught English to Mr. Abayev, creating internal conflict for Mr. Abayev. However, with time and help from his mother, Mr. Abayev comprehended the English language and understood that the message is what matters in English. What allows others to acquire authentic communication comes not from the structure but from a genuine connection. Mr. Abayev describes how he feels so his writing is clarified and his audience empathizes.  Mr. Abayev said in his essay, “I was always insecure about my writing, and I used to stare at sentences on my paper trying to figure out which word or order was grammatically correct, having no idea which possibility was right.” The insecurity made him uncertain in his writing. In addition, using this as part of his anecdotes allows readers to sympathize with Mr. Abayev and understand where Mr. Abayev is coming from with his struggles with English.

        Published in the New York Times, Mr.Abayev wanted to reach an audience, everyone. However, there were specific groups of people Mr.Abayev had in mind, with teachers being one of said audience. “From an academic perspective, teachers may need to take note of how outside factors could affect their English,” Mr.Abayev said. Mr. Abayev utilized anecdotes to elucidate the necessity of understanding genuine communication for teachers. He wants teachers to understand that students may struggle with understanding formal English because of the many other ways said child is taught and immersed in language at home. Especially if the household where the child resides is with family members who are immigrants, the child may interact with and use another language or a mix of said language with English that follows different grammatical or structural rules of formal English. Therefore, teachers should consider this when teaching the younger generation how to communicate, as these ways of communication are valid. The teacher can coach these aspiring communicators in a way that does not cause resistance while running but aids and accelerates the understanding of formal English as another way to achieve genuine communication. 

        Another audience Mr. Abayev had in mind was people who grew up in immigrant households like himself. He wanted individuals in a similar situation like him to understand the importance of communication, meaning there is no correct way said person would need to speak. Mr.Abayev would tell his younger self to see helping immigrant relevancies with English-related tasks as beneficial towards growth. “It’s good to discover on my own so that I could learn it for the future because then that would have been a mistake.” Mr. Abayev said. When asked whether connecting the experiences he and his mother faced with English was done on purpose, he affirmed this notion. “So kind of like when we both were at a point where we were struggling and then we built off of each other like I helped her and her messages help me learn English. So we kind of built up on that together,” Mr. Abayev said. He used helping his mother with numerous writing tasks to show how, like runners drafting one another, both produced a vast impact by running together and taking advantage of going on the same track toward understanding English.

        The anecdotes of Mr.Abayev helping his mother symbolize the impact both had on each other and further highlight the fact that what matters with communication is the message. Mr.Abayev talked about his mother sometimes not utilizing the grammar rules due to her native language, Tagalog. “That was something that she’s very used to in the other language. So she applied that to English and it doesn’t work that way.” Still, Mr.Abayev understood every word so first said.

         So, the day he saw the message, his thoughts were not filled, with confusion, because of the grammar. Instead, he remembered the challenges both faced as Mr.Abayev and his mother ran together and gained a second wind with English and genuine communication.

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