Cover Letter

My essay is tailored to my professor and classmates as I adopted a sincere and
professional tone. I discussed an issue that people in New York may be more aware of.
Especially peers and faculty at the school I attend.
In this phase I learned a lot about what goes into a research paper. Synthesisng opposing
perspectives and arguments is something I haven’t tried before and it taught me a way to
strengthen my paper. I’ve definitely gotten much better at identifying a strong thesis statement
and learning to properly write a conclusion without it being too repetitive and meaningless.
Terms such as audience and exigence have taught me to be more aware of my writing and
who I am addressing in my essays. Considering what tone to adopt as well as what rhetorical
devices to use on a specific audience are important parts of an essay. Understanding the author’s
argument and purpose when finding sources is also imperative to a research paper. It takes time
to find articles that perfectly suit your argument and synthesis.
Finding methods for researching topics and gathering specific information is a big
takeaway from this phase. I “Developed strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising,
and editing.” This phase specifically taught me how to go stage by stage while learning from the
feedback of others and revising my own paper. It also taught me how to properly read articles
and carefully pick my sources that I know will be useful for my argument.

The challenges facing Asian-American Students

Students in the United States with an asian background face a different set of challenges
compared to other groups. In my research essay I will be studying how the linguistic and cultural
differences of being in America affect asian students. I will be researching how students born
specifically in asian countries deal with the change in environment in the U.S. and how the
difference in language poses a challenge for them. The U.S. is known for its diversity and this
also carries on into the classroom. In places like New York students speak over 175 different
languages. For 160,000 children, English is not their first language. In this essay I will bring
awareness to the struggles of these students and how they prevail through adversity in the
classroom. I am writing this to find out more about what it’s truly like to be one of these students.
In this paper, I argue that asian-American students in the U.S face more challenges than other
groups of students, because of cultural differences, stereotypes, and more difficult linguistic
challenges.
A writer and educator from Durham, North Carolina, Andrea Bittle in her article, “I Am
Asian American,” published in Learning for Justice, addresses the topic of the unique struggles
that asian-american students face and argues that they are treated differently than other
minorities. She supports this claim by speaking on her teaching experiences, using statistics on
students, and explaining the personal story of one of her students. Bittle’s purpose is to bring
awareness in order for people to understand what it is like for this underrepresented group. She
adopts a serious tone for her audience, the readers of Learning for Justice and others interested in
the topic of asian-american challenges.
For many minorities racism and bigotry are a huge problem. An issue that goes unnoticed
is the bias some Asians have for each other. For example, when explaining the new set of
students entering a particular school, the author states, “Gao entered the 10th grade. His parents
had come to the United States from China to work in his uncle’s restaurant. He didn’t speak
much English, but he had been a good student in Beijing. At lunchtime, he was dismayed when
other Chinese boys moved away from him. One boy eyed him, muttering “F.O.B” under his
breath”(Bittle 2). This insulting terminology is an acronym meaning, “fresh off the boat.” This
term refers to a asian person who is originally from a country such as China and recently
immigrated to the U.S. It is almost always used in a way to discriminate and insult other kids.
This form of discrmination inside the asian community is a unique challenge that can often cause
a problem in schools throughout the U.S.
An instructor at UC Berkeley and an editor at the associated press, Ashley Hopkinson in
her article, “Educators face new challenges in ‘super diverse’ classrooms where multiple
languages are spoken,” published in EdSource, addresses the topic of what it like do teach in a
diverse classroom and argues that there are many challenges that teachers face when teaching a
classroom of many students that come from different backgrounds and speak different languages.
She supports this claim by explaining a pilot program named SEAL in which teachers tried
different strategies in these classrooms, speaking on personal experiences, and using school
examples. Hopkinson’s purpose is to educate people to let them know what needs to change in
these classroom settings. She adopts a professional tone for her audience, the readers of
EdSource and others interested in the topic of ‘super diverse’ classrooms.
In many schools in California there is a program being tried in which multiple
languages are spoken in the classroom. Most often, this means English as well as Spanish are
used to teach students as Spanish is the second most spoken language in the U.S. Hopkinson
states, “For instance, in a typical bilingual classroom a teacher may switch between Spanish and
English to clarify a concept or give an instruction to a specific group of students. However, in a
super diverse classroom, a teacher may only be able to give one or two examples from the
multiple languages spoken and has to reserve more time for one-on-one student
interactions”(Hopkinson 3). Spanish speakers are often catered to in these types of classrooms as
they are categorized as the main English learners. This leaves out students from underrepresented
backgrounds such as asian ethnicities. The language barrier is even greater for students of these
backgrounds due to an entirely different alphabet and system being used. This means asian
students need to overcome even more as English learners in the U.S.
In an article titled, “An Uneven Playing Field: The Complex Educational Experiences of
Asian Americans,” published in Higher Education Today, by Julie Park, an associate professor at
the University of Maryland, the author explains that asian American student success is not
always what you think. The author brings up personal stories, historical events, and statistics to
make her case. She writes this article to educate people on common misconceptions that should
importantly be conflicted. She adopts a professional tone for her audience, the readers of Higher
Education Today, and others interested in asian American misconceptions.
Part of the reason asian-american students are seen as so successful is due to the cultural
difference that may set asian students apart. In her article Park writes, “as Lee and Zhou explain,
there are real drawbacks to the “success frame” mentality and the infrastructure built to support
it, especially in the arena of mental health for many youth who do not fit the mold. Pressure from
the “success frame” mentality is so immense that Asian American college students are more
likely than Whites to consider and attempt suicide.” For asian communities there is often a lot of
pressure placed on the idea of doing well in education and it is seen more as unacceptable to fall
short of these expectations. This hard work mentality helps students secure their future and claim
success but inevitably it takes a toll on the individual’s mental health. This cultural rift places
extra pressure on asian-students and makes them more at edge for mental problems.
In , “I am Asian American,” by Andrea Bittle, the author states “In the media, Asian
Americans are often stereotyped as nerds, scientists, office workers or martial artists speaking
broken English—the ‘forever foreigner’ with poor language and social skills. ‘The media
perpetuates stereotypes and these messages sneak into the classroom,’ says Dr. Nellie Tran, a
social psychologist at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell.” The text argues that in
addition to the challenges and bias that students of different backgrounds face, asian-american
students have their own unique stereotypes and obstacles to overcome as students in the U.S.
In a separate article labeled, “Why do asian american students do better in school,” by
Angel Xie, the author proclaims, “When asked to identify the most important traits to academic
success, Asians quoted ‘Continuous effort’, ‘Self-control’, and ‘motivational process’ as the top
3 reasons. In comparison, other Americans are more likely to attribute academic success to born
intelligence like IQ scores. This major cultural difference significantly impacts Asian Americans’
attitude towards school in general.” In this article the author argues that a broader cultural
difference is responsible for why asian-american students seem to outperform compared to other
students and why there is such a strong stereotype surrounding their success.
The second source seems to exemplify the first source by almost explaining why there is
an inherent bias towards asian’american students. In response to the first text it explains the
cultural difference that may set asian students apart from the rest and how this serves as a reason
for the strong stereotypes we see against asian-americans in the classroom. This complication
adds to the challenge of being a student of a different background, specifically for students of an
asian background.
This third source complicates what is said in the first source by explaining that the
success of asian students is not what it seems and that much of what is thought about asian
students is false. Park goes on to argue that there are many asian students who have dropped out
of high school or only attend community college which shows that they don’t outperform. She
uses her own personal narratives to explain what she observes in her own life and how that
disproves a point of view used in source 1.
As problems such as racism rage on in our country it is important to recognize the other
challenges that communities of color deal with regularly. Asian students in the U.S. particularly
deal with many of the problems that other minorities deal with but some of these issues are
unique to asian students. The stereotypes surrounding asian culture and the exaggerated
linguistic barriers make it even more difficult for these young students. The covid pandemic has
exacerbated problems like racism against asians to a point where there must be more awareness
about it. This issue can be seen as a segway into the other challenges these groups face and it is
important for society as a whole to play a part in finding solutions
Bibliography

• Shafer, Leah. “The Other Achievement Gap.” Harvard Graduate School of Education, 17
  Apr. 2017, https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/17/04/other-achievement-gap.
• Bittle, Andrea. “I Am Asian American.” Learning for Justice, 2013,
  https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/summer-2013/i-am-asian-american.

• Park, Julie. How is “success framework” different from culture? August 24th, et al. “An
  Uneven Playing Field: The Complex Educational Experiences of Asian Americans.”
  Higher Education Today, 24 Oct. 2019,
  https://www.higheredtoday.org/2019/08/21/uneven-playing-field-complex-educational-ex
  periences-asian-americans/.

• Hopkinson, Ashley. “Educators Face New Challenges in ‘Superdiverse’ Classrooms
  Where Multiple Languages Are Spoken.” EdSource, EdSource, 8 Oct. 2021,
  https://edsource.org/2018/educators-face-new-challenges-in-superdiverse-classrooms-wh
  ere-multiple-languages-are-spoken/597026.