Mohammed Zohery

Dr. Ebony Terrell Shockley

TLPL288C-0101

10 December 2018

TLPL Reflection

I definitely underestimated this class. I still remember the days where I scrolled on

Testudo for hours trying to decide what general education course to take, but none of them

seemed to interest me. I was looking for an easy A class that I would enjoy and that would knock

off multiple requirements at once. Eventually, I asked my sister for help. My sister graduated

from the University of Maryland last winter and is now pursuing her graduate studies on campus.

As soon as she came across “Special Problems in Teaching: The Power of the Tongue”, she

urged me to take the course. I didn’t understand her obsession with it because I had no interest in

the field of education, and even the name of the course didn’t sound like a typical course name. I

also wasn’t sure about taking a blended course for my first semester in college. But alas, I

decided to give it a shot. After all, it did knock off three of my general education requirements.

After attending the first two face-to-face sessions, I was seriously considering dropping

the course. I was afraid that the weekly online written assignments for this class, along with the

studies for all my other courses, would be too much for me to handle. Not to mention Dr. E

scaring me with all the upcoming projects and assignments. I did not want to start off college

with a low GPA. I consulted my sister, and she told me to be patient and that I wont regret taking

this course. It is now safe to say she was right.

The majority of topics discussed in this course rotated around the central theme: dialects.

We’ve analyzed the term “dialect” and studied its different aspects and implications. We
examined how dialect is associated with politics, racism, and socioeconomics. For example, one

online session was centered around the political debate on whether the United States should

adopt Puerto Rico as a fifty-first state. We also spent a couple of sessions studying the works of

John Baugh and his findings on linguistic profiling. Furthermore, we examined socioeconomics

and its correlations with cultural, social, and economic capital. Every subject we’ve focused our

attention on somehow related back to dialects.

To respond to the class question of “what does it mean to have a dialect?”, I believe that

having a dialect is equivalent to having an identity. Every person has a unique story behind the

way they speak. Their dialect is a result of influences of their surroundings, and their interactions

with people and the environment. We defined the term “dialect” as a particular form of a

language that is peculiar to a specific region or social group, and refers to vocabulary, grammar

and spelling that people use within a regional group. We agreed that dialect is affected by social

factors, geographical location, and race, which has a tremendous effect on cultural identity and

makes every individual unique among others. An individual’s dialect is similar to their

fingerprint in a sense that no two fingers have the exact same print.

The course opened our eyes to the differences and similarities in written and verbal

dialect and language. An example of differences in verbal dialect is the use of different words

such as “y’all” and “you guys”. I have observed how my friends in Virginia tend to say “you

guys” while my friends in Maryland tend to say “y’all” when interacting with a group of people.

I’ve learned to accept these differences and even to code switch while conversating with friends

of different geographical locations. An example of differences in written dialects is how us

Americans spell color as “color” while Canadians and the British spell it as “colour”. Dr. E

shared a personal incident with us where she was typing up an article but ended up getting
feedback on how she spelt the word “color”. She emphasized that there is no single “correct”

dialect; even grammar differs from one dialect to another. It is our duty as human beings to be

open to the differences across cultural groups. By setting aside our differences and refraining

from discrimination, we can work to build a better society. TLPL288C works to create a well-

rounded and open-minded UMD student.

Because of our focused attention on dialects, I chose to relate my artifacts in my

ePortfolio back to the theme of the course. For my first couple of artifacts, I discussed my

identity, my origins, and possible factors that ultimately influenced my very own dialect, ranging

from parental influences to geographical influences. I discussed how I code switch from dialect

to dialect when I visit my friends across states, and from language to language as I engage in

discourse with people who speak the Arabic language. I also included artifacts that correlated

dialects to different terms such as accents, sociolinguistics, capital, and profiling. I even had an

Arabic song as one of my artifacts, as I was very intrigued by the lyrics and wished to examine it

further. My last couple of artifacts were centered around language and its four domains: reading,

writing, listening, and speaking. Finally, I decided to use a YouTube video titled “Arabic Accent

101” as my final artifact just to end off my ePortfolio in an interesting, yet humorous fashion.

All in all, I truly enjoyed taking this course, and I am so glad about making the decision

of not dropping it. The class made me aware of issues non-native English speakers face when

coming to America and opened my mind to different methods of helping them assimilate to

society. Not to mention that TLPL288C currently holds my highest grade across all my other

courses. I would definitely recommend this course to friends regardless if they’re interested in

the teaching profession or not. I myself am not interested in the profession of education, yet I

consider this course one the most influential and mind-opening experience by far.