Language is a very powerful tool that humans created in order to communicate and as a child you are taught a language. As we learn how to speak we are able to communicate and be better understood. Then we are prompted to go to school in order to learn how to be literate and the language that we learned begins to be sharpened by not only your teachers but also your classmates and then friends. The language(s) you learn depends on where you come from and that language(s) shape the way you think. Knowing more than one language lets you see things from more than one perspective. Language differences can also cause conflicts.
Before we learn how to speak we are unable to properly express ourselves. Children we learn precisely the language taught to us, most likely your family like Paul Robert states in "Speech Communities "(139). Our parents most likely begin by encouraging us to say words by repeating it to us until we mimic them, then we are then motivated to learn how to communicate by speech. Robert describes the motivations for speaking wanting to communicate and to be admired (140). As we grow we tend to speak differently depending on who or what we are surrounded (141). As we accumulate age our language begins to catch shape. .
Then we are faced with the societal norm of attending school in order to learn how to read, write, and even better our pronunciation. If you do not attend school you do not learn how to write, read or the "proper " way of speaking. Depending on who you choose to surround yourself with, not knowing the proper way of speaking or how to read and write may or may not matter. In "Coming to an Awareness of Language ", Malcom X had little interest in learning how to speak properly, read, or even write before he went into prison and felt jealous of Bimbi because of his knowledge (68). When Malcom X was in the streets his the way he was used to speaking which was street slang, was okay for his audience.
