It could be said that Tan's essay might be a “compare/ contrast” one, because it is presented as a comparison of the English language. She exposes his ideas and provides examples of them , personal experiences and she gives a definition of “mother tongue” and she resorts to his mother to provide a clear example of this topic.The she provides more examples to illustrate her point. It could be said that the text is divided into 3 parts: part 1 presents some situations about different styles of English. Part 2 addresses to her mother limitations with the language and the last part, n°3 focuses on her and how she wrote her stories.
