Assignment Sheet

A Translingual Mini-Autoethnography
For this assignment, you will write a research paper that is researching yourself, your language
usage, and your experiences with others’ languages in your community. For an
autoethnography, you will use evidence that comes from your own experience, that evidence
being weekly journal entries about your observations of your experiences with language. In your
paper, you will answer several questions outlined below, but your main goal will be to discover
how language is used in your linguistic communities and how it impacts you.

Requirements:

Part One:

Before writing the autoethnography, you will observe your own behavior for three weeks and
then journal for about fifteen minutes at the end of the week. Each week you’ll observe
something different about your language practices and reflect on the experiences in your journal.
This will act as evidence for your paper, where you can draw upon your experiences, biases, and
opinions.

Weekly Focus Questions:

● Week One Focus Question:
○ How often do you consider the language you’re using? Observe how often you
think about the language choices you’re making.
● Week Two Focus Question:
○ Have you ever felt that you used the wrong language variety at the wrong time? If
so, observe what happened and how it made you feel. If not, observe the differing
circumstances you were in and how you were able to feel confident in your
language use.
● Week Three Focus Question:
○ How often do you note the language practices of others? Observe when you take
note of others’ language practices and whether its ones that differ from your
practices or are similar to your practices.
Part Two:

For the last week of this unit, you will analyze your journal entries and write your
autoethnography. Because this is a research paper, you will still need to have a thesis statement,
supporting evidence, and a conclusion. You do not need to follow any strict guidelines for
grammar or citing, but you should be able to present this information to the class at the end of the
week..

Requirements:
● Have a thesis statement that answers:
○ How is language used in the communities you are a part of (school, home, church,
community groups, etc), and how do you feel these language practices affect your
language identity?
● Throughout the paper, also be sure to answer:
○ How would you define your language identity?
○ Do you have any biases toward specific language practices? What experiences in
your life may have led you to having these biases?
○ Where did you see fluidity in your language use? Were there any moments where
you could feel differing practices and varieties being used interchangeably?
● Use 3-4 pieces of evidence
○ This evidence would be things you discussed in your journal entries, such as
reflections you had, experiences that were noteworthy, or questions that you
pondered.
● Conclude on how you feel about your language identity and the communities you are a
part of shape and impact that identity
● Be 1-3 pages double spaced