IMRAD Analysis of Two Ostylus Articles

Critical Language Awareness: Spanglish

- Introduction - Case for the Research
● This research is important because the author points out an influx of immigrants
from Spanish-speaking countries and the way they adapt to the predominantly
English-heavy environment. The solution to this “problem” of a predominantly
English environment is “Spanglish” which allows Hispanics to adapt to the new
customs and language. Another underlying problem comes from English and
Spanish linguists who believe Spanglish is authentic.
● Methods
- The author chose to conduct secondary research for this study by reviewing
multiple peer-reviewed articles found in journals specializing in English, Spanish,
and minority linguistics. These were used to validate her claims about the
growing commonalities and disparities that the Spanglish dialect has with English
and Spanish in America.
● Results
- The author found that Spanglish is a new language that is still being researched
every day
- Spanglish is still an undefined dialect because of its lack of uniformity
- Spanglish has become the language of choice for Hispanic-Americans and is the
representing language of the two cultures coexisting
● Discussion
- Why is it important to talk about Spanglish? This author brings to light on the
conflict between users of Spanglish, only Spanish speaking, and bilinguals.
“People who speak Spanglish don’t have a language” are one of many quotes in
the article that demonstrate the division of “proper” speaking and Madruga is
bringing forth this conflict to cause readers to, in a way, take a stance on what
they believe is correct on the topic of Spanglish.
● Abstract
- The purpose of this report was to show how Spanglish is used within cultures in
the U.S., to help Americans of Latin origin to communicate between each other
and others speaking either English or Spanish. It shows how useful and popular
spanglish has become but also shows the backlash from hispanics and english
speakers against its use as it is not seen as a language.

Critical Language Awareness: Spanglish by Laila Suarez highlights immigrants from

Spanish-speaking countries and how they adapt to the English-heavy environment. “Spanglish”
allows Hispanics to adapt to the new customs and language. The author conducted secondary
research by reviewing peer-reviewed articles specializing in linguistics. These validated her
claims about the growing commonalities and disparities that Spanglish has with English and
Spanish. Spanglish is a new, undefined dialect still being researched every day and has become
the language of choice for Hispanic Americans, representing the two cultures coexisting. There
is much divisiveness when it comes to outsider perspective of Spanglish, as pure English and
Spanish speakers view it as an informal way of speaking. This report showcased Spanglish use
within the U.S., helping Latin Americans communicate with each other and only English or
Spanish speakers. It shows how Spanglish popularity has grown, plus backlash from Hispanics
and English speakers against its use.

Critical Language Awareness: “The Becoming of an Outsider: A Story of How the Molded Clay
Was Shaped”
● Introduction
- Case for the Research: This article focuses on how literacy sponsors in childhood
have a major effect on one's lifestyle and language in adulthood. The “research”
in the article is mostly just an anecdote the author tells about his life and how
literacy sponsors have a large effect especially in children. This article only cites a
few sources but only really utilizes one so I would say a gap in the research field
is that the author should have used more scientific studies about literacy sponsors
in childhood and used data from those studies to support his research.
● Methods
- What did you do?: Throughout the article, Jones uses an anecdote in order to
speak about his life experiences and how literacy sponsors have impacted his
language use throughout his education. Additionally, he used some secondary
sources to back up his use of language. However, he did not collect further data
making this reach the “gold standard”, meaning his methods do not allow for
others to replicate his work. Whilst, it can not be simply replicated, others can
prompt another perception on their use of language and how literacy sponsors
impacted their vernacular.
● Results
- What did you find?: The author found that literacy sponsors in childhood tend to
have a much larger effect on language used in adulthood than those in the teen or
adult years. There is no quantitative data in this article as the author didn’t
conduct any interviews that would provide him with such research. The author
used his own personal story as the majority of the research so I don’t believe this
article provides a good example of research.
● Discussion
 - What does it mean?: The author made the realization that all his efforts to satisfy
his peers did not matter, but the only thing that mattered was that he was able to
accept himself for who he was. No one cared for who he was, but it was who he
cared to be. The limitations for this study is that he is the primary source, so it
shows only one side of the story. He also only included a few secondary sources
in the text.
● Abstract
- Summarize the entire article?: Jones begins the article by telling an anecdote
about his early life and how one specific teacher, Ms. Clarke, made a large impact
in his life by being his first literacy sponsor. The article progresses to discuss later
parts of Jones’ life and how switching school caused him to have a different
literacy sponsor in the form of his peers and that his academics declined as a
result and he picked up more slang terms. Continuing into his high school and
current college life, Jones reveals that he has now found a happy medium and is
now representing himself the way he wants and not to please his literacy sponsors
he had as a child.

The Becoming of an Outsider: A Story of How the Molded Clay Was Shaped by Chad Jones
focuses on how literacy sponsors in childhood have a major effect on one's lifestyle and language
in adulthood. The “research” in the article is mostly just an anecdote the author tells about his
life and how literacy sponsors have a large effect especially in children. Throughout the article,
Jones uses an anecdote in order to speak about his life experiences and how literacy sponsors
have impacted his language use throughout his education. Additionally, he used some secondary
sources to back up his use of language. However, he did not collect further data making this
reach the “gold standard”, meaning his methods do not allow for others to replicate his work.
Whilst, it can not be simply replicated, others can prompt another perception on their use of
language and how literacy sponsors impacted their vernacular. Overall, the author found that
literacy sponsors in childhood tend to have a much larger effect on language used in adulthood
than those in the teen or adult years.