The Power of Language Practices

Zuoyuan Huang's essay highlights the challenges of developing new language practices as we move through different discursive and cultural contexts .His essay shows that learning languages can enable us to develop new approaches for exploring and conveying our experiences .REFLECTIVE MEMO: I am an international student from China, and this is a piece I produced about a month after I came to the United States .At that time, I had encountered some difficulties when I was trying to communicate with the people here .Trying to make the situation better, I reflected on my former experience with English learning and found some problems with it .In order to resolve these problems, I employed different language practices .In this essay, I introduced, analyzed and discovered the formation of these language practices .I also proposed my own perspective on what native English speakers can do (when they encounter these language practices) to help students like me get accustomed to the new cultural environment better .