Lucy's English Language blog

Opinion article - Language and Gender Are the different ways men and women speak due to natural instinct, or is it due to our personalities? According to Deborah Tannen's 'Difference Approach' theory, she claims that the difference between men and women starts at childhood, and that we belong to different sub-cultures and therefore speak differently. But is her theory true? Do we truly speak differently due to our gender difference or is there something else? Do our personalities and environments really shape the way we are...? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For years there have been debates among people about male and female language and why we have many differences in our speech. Many theorists believe that men and generally see language as a means of asserting dominance and seem more naturally authoritative in their speech. In language men are also seen as being ...

Dialogue Information VS. feelings - Males are concerned with the facts; women with emotions MALE: Just tell him straight off. It will make life much easier. FEMALE: I know that... but- MALE: -But what? He's made you feel miserable! FEMALE: Look I know, I just don't want to come off as rude or petty. MALE: You've been complaining about this guy for months, just tell him straight so you won't have to deal with it anymore. FEMALE: I don't want to hurt his feelings! MALE: He hurt your feelings. Stop being sensitive and just tell him the truth. FEMALE: Maybe I should just apologise and leave it at that, so as not to cause an argument. I don't want him to hate me, or for him to think I'm being inconsiderate. MALE: Jesus christ! This guy has made you feel like shit, he's rubbed your face through the dirt and made you cry on numerous occasions. Do you really think someone like that is gonna feel remorse? Do you really think he cares? ...

TASK 2: Men and women use language differently Use the data below to write 6 statements. This is your interpretation and analysis of the raw data. 1. On average, men had a higher average "did interrupt" per meeting than women. The highest score from a women was 2.0 (Woman D) whereas the highest for a man was 8.0. (Man F) 2. Men were also higher scorers when it came to average turn per meeting. The highest for a women was 20.5 (women D) whereas for a man the highest was 32.6. (Man G) 3. The average no. of seconds per turn is quite balanced between wen and women, but on average men have slightly higher scores for this, the highest being 17.1. (Man F) 4. Although men had the highest score for "did interrupt", they also have the highest average and score for "was interrupted" at a score of 6.7 (Man F) 5. Man G and Women D had the highest scores throughout for everything. 6. Man I and women C had the lowest scores th...

Language & Gender introductory Task - Shower gel advert for women: 1. What types of reader knowledge does this text assume? - The text assumes that every women has a man in their life, if it be a boyfriend or husband and that that's how men act. 2. This text was found on the side of the shower gel bottle. How might this have influenced the kinds of linguistic decisions the text producer made? - I feel as though the text producer purposely made the text very long and colloquial to relate to their audience, it was put on the side because people normally "inspect" the products they're about to purchase. 3. How does this text represent males and females? - Females are represented as easily irritated housewives who have to clear up after everyone else, whereas men are seen as unorganised and dirty. The last sentence "we only want you for your body" suggests that women are only interested in a man who has a "great" (in our society) bo...