One of the most important elements of “Mother Tongue” are the repeated references to English and to different forms of English. While neither the title nor the conclusion of the essay specifically name English, Tan’s introduction and development of her argument all rely on references to types of English. Tan also provides numerous anecdotal illustrations of these types of English, from her mother’s narrative style to formal interactions with a doctor to examples of standardized testing questions and how these represent a type of English. In each example Tan argues that, to some extent, there is no “good English” (7) despite the way US culture values English that adheres to a certain formality and grammatical structure.

English is also an important motif in the essay because of the implied connection between English and Tan’s choice to write literature. Though not all literature is written in English, much of the US perspective on the subject is that there are constructions and types of English that are valuable and therefore literary, while there are other types of English (like Tan’s mother’s) that are less valuable and therefore not literary. By repeatedly referencing the different types of English, Tan serves her closing argument with more emotional force: Asian Americans excluded from the literary sphere, yet by writing in a more authentically Chinese American voice that uses multiple Englishes, Tan became more successful, not less.