Language In The Film English Vinglish

Language is a tool for people communicating; with its development and increasing diversity, people gradually become unsatisfied by using language, as a communication method, barely to understand, instead, they are eager to interpret. They would like to know a person’s personality through his or her language speaking; they are more intended to judge others through the superficial language skill. An invisible standard continuously forms that people who have a higher language skill deserve more respect and may lead more self-confidence. However, this fact is highly controversial due to various sources which depict the correlation between language, especially English competence, and a person’s self-competence.

Granted, people who speak fluent

In the movie English Vinglish (2012), directed by Gauri Shinde, a housewife Shashi is belittled and isolated by her husband and daughter simply because she cannot speak very good English. When she is in New York City, helping prepare her niece’s wedding, she decides to attend English learning class to change her husband and daughter’s attitude towards her. During that time, not only has she improved her English speaking and listening skills, being able to order a meal in fluent English, but also she gains more confidence from the friends whom she encountered in the class. The movie focuses on the change of Shashi’s characteristic; on the wedding scene at the end of the movie, she said that looking for the opportunity and exploring ourselves’ true value can lead more self-confidence instead of caring other’s

In the article Fostering English Learners’ Confidence, the author Rhonda Bondie, Laurie Gaughran, Akane Zusho (2014) interview an international high school in New York City and they find out that even though teachers are not in the classroom, students would hold discussions by themselves and everyone is very concentrated on studying together and listening to each other because they’ve already got used to the discussion routines. The school is dedicated to providing students a setting where they are able to interact with peers, getting involved in the team work and obtaining knowledge. What’s more, the school claims that it is not the language competence that builds up students’ confidence, but the interaction and communication. Therefore, this discussion routine not only boost students’ content learning, but also foster their self-confidence, not being embarrassed to ask questions and collaborating with teammates effectively, that cannot be obtained barely through enhancing language