Brief Commentary on How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently, by Deborah Tannen

While boys focus more on status in conversation, girls tend to concentrate on emotional connection and sympathetic sameness. Early on, boys tend to realize that there is always going to be a dominant position and a subordinate position in communication. Because of this, boys will aim to be the dominating person, or at least not the subordinate. This can be seen in competitive games where little boys try to outdo each other by saying that they have or that they are the best. When these same boys grow up, this importance of status becomes embedded into their heads so that

Deborah Tannen’s case study entitled “Can’t We Talk?” is the most relevant reading that I have ever done for any class. It relates to a problem that every person regardless of age, race or sex, will have to face many times in his or her lifetime. The problem is that men and women communicate differently and these differences can often lead to conflict. This case study is very informative because it helps to clarify the thought process of each sex. That said this reading leaves the reader somewhat unfulfilled because Tannen does not offer a solution to the problem.

Deborah Tannen, who is a professor of linguistics, says in her essay, "How Male And Female Students Use Language Differently", that after she made her book, “You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation” that one of the unintended benefits was that she gets to reevaluate her teaching strategies and see how male and females act differently in class. As you read through her essay you can tell that Deborah Tannen wants her readers to think about why males tend to speak more in discussions than females and the reason for this difference in the classroom and also how we can improve the classroom for both men and women.Although Tannen tends to get off topic and doesn 't have much evidence to back up some of her claims, she states

Did you know, “men and women talk differently because they are raised in something like two different cultures: a male culture from which young men learn to speak like men and a female culture in which young women learn to speak like women?”(Cooper and MacDonald 9). Well, not actually from two separate cultures, but the idea of men and women being opposites as pointed out in the opening. Deborah Tannen has made her theory that a male culture and female culture each exist, very popular with the human population and has written an extensive book on her theory.

Deborah Tannen is an American academic and professor of linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Her research mainly focuses on the expression of interpersonal relationships in conversational interactions, including how these interactions are affected by gender and cultural differences. In her essay Tannen uses gender to reveal the differences between male and female conversational styles in classroom discussions. She formulates the theory that males naturally prefer and dominate contributions to these debate-like discussions while females incline to contribute to less hostile conversations. Tannen presents her argument effectively using simple vocabulary and appropriate literary devices however, as the essay progresses she

Bonds between boys are based less on talking and more on doing things together. Boy's groups are larger and more hierarchical and they struggle with group status. The article suggests that women's complaints that men don't listen to them may stem from the fact that being a listener produces the feeling of being talked down to, a

In her essay, "But What Do You Mean?" Deborah Tannen discusses how men and women 's conversation styles differ in how they communicate with one another. The problem is that men and women have different perspectives. Tannen explains that the "conversation rituals" among women are designed to be polite and sensitive to others, while the "conversation rituals" among men are designed to maintain superiority (328). Tannen explores seven ways in which men and women miscommunicate : apologies, criticism, thank-yous, fighting, praise, complaints, and jokes. Being no fault of either party, conversation strategies between men and women are just naturally different, these miscommunications can make conversation awkward and sometimes can be misunderstood.

“Sex Differences” is an essay written by a professor of linguistics named Ronald Macaulay. In the essay, he pointed out that there were no gender differences regarding to language development. He talked about various stereotypes about how men and women speak. He also explains in depth about how social environment made an impact on the talking between men and women. He also concluded that those linguists who still believe in that theory only continue to do so even if what they found in their research is not statistically significant. In many ways, Macaulay’s essay is persuasive. Through this essay, one would agree with him that there is no different form of language in which women and men speak.

Through her use of the rhetorical devices of personal experience, ethos, and comparison, venerated Georgetown linguistics professor Deborah Tannen persuaded me to concede with her argument that males and females communicate differently in the classroom, as indicated in her 1991 article How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently. In this composition, she emphasizes that because of intersexual differences in utilizing the spoken word in class differently, instructors, including herself, consider reevaluating their teaching strategies. In her case, revising the approach involved building experience through closely monitoring her classes and collaborating with colleagues.

From "You just don't understand: Women and men in conversation", Deborah Tannen shows the gender differences in conversation. The main idea is that women value relationship and empathy within a group, while men are struggling to raise their status and class. According to Deborah Tannen, this affects how they think and speak. Generally, men talk more in a public situation, while women talk more in private settings. Most women tend to use rapport talk for conversation, "a way of establishing connections and negotiating relationships," whereas most men tend to use report talk, "a way of preserving independence and maintain status in hierarchical social order"(Deborah Tannen, You just don't understand: Women and men in conversation) There are different understandings between gender about what conversation is for. To him, talk is information, which is used to inform what he needs to know or what he wants other to know. To her, however, talk is for interaction, a way to show involvement, whereas listening is a way of caring. Therefore, in public events, men are more comfortable to claim attention with this understanding of talking.

Teens’ relationship is an important period to develop this kind of skills, with the help of parents or teachers. As we know, some children are very shy to talk with others, especially with strangers or opposite-sex children. Many researchers suggest that boys and girls have different communication ways and distinct ways to get on with friends. This is why boys and girls feel embarrassed when talk to each other. Just like Deborah Tannen says in her article “How Male And Female Students Use Language Differently,” “A girl has a best friend with whom she sits and talks, frequently telling secrets…boys are expected to use language to seize center stage by exhibiting their skills…and knowledge.

In the excerpt "How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently" originally published in a book called You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation in 1990, Deborah Tannen observes that one method of teaching a class does not necessarily work for all other classes. In her research, classrooms are dominated by male students, because most instructors use a teaching method called ritual opposition which exhibits "public display followed by argument and challenge" that cater to male students more than female students. Most instructors believe that classroom participation, such as contributing to classroom discussions, will determine students' success. Consequently, in an environment where men express themselves as a dominant figure,

The data on Table 1 shows that the men in the meeting had more turns but there was an exception (woman D) and the men in the meeting generally spoke for longer per turn but again there was an exception (woman B). Additionally men also interrupted more (except for man E), and men were interrupted more except Man E and Man I, therefore there is no significant pattern in terms of which gender was interrupted more.

"Womanspeak and Manspeak" is the article that I chose to read. The article mainly talked about the differences of sociological behavior of men and women. Not just only on how they act, but mostly on how society views them to be. Basically, I had learned the how few differences man and women have. The only true difference is how we are perceived. Men have always been looked at as being at a higher status in life. It seems as if these ideas are still around today. Many people just assume that it is alright for men to do certain things that women are forbidden to do. Also, I learned that a person of higher working status instigates most touching or sexual behavior,

Written communication is the idea of creating well-organized sentences that produce precise meanings. So, who is the better writer? The boys or the girls? It is not another battle of the sexes, but a growing concern that researchers have studied over the years to obtain a deeper degree of comprehension. In short, research has concluded that gender influences and impacts written communication. The significance in conducting research is to attain a healthier understanding so that, for example, a compatible curriculum can be developed to meet the unique needs of each gender in the classroom. The failure to study the differences would continue to hinder male and female students and result in not producing teachers who could benefit from the research and become more knowledgeable about the relevance of gender differences. The study is relevant to my role as an English teacher and serves to enhance the field of education, in fact, impact it considerably since written communication becomes the foundation across all disciplines in the classroom and eventually in the workplace.