...Male and Female Students Use Language Differently,” Deborah Tannen explores how participatory individuals are based on certain grouping and situations. She investigates the difference in homogeneous and heterogeneous interactions in a small group academic setting focusing on males and females. Her exploration into the “language” used based on gender also correlated within certain ethnicities. Her conclusions were women interacted more positively with each other than men, male interactions center around sarcasm and a sense of superiority, and the domination of academic discussions were by men even in heterogeneous gender groups. Tannen’s findings showed how women flourished in homogeneous groups. According to anthropologists and sociologists in Tannen’s studies, females tend to have one female companion or a few close confidants with whom sharing their most intimate and secret affairs are a rite of passage (Tannen 369). Females need that sense of camaraderie among themselves as a release of information in a manner, which allows them the opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings in a non-judgmental...
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...Students Use Language Differently", she is discussing male and female conversational styles and how they influence discussion in the classroom. First Tannen talks about how girls like smaller groups and "it's the telling of the secrets that makes them best friends", but boys like larger groups and "boys are expected to use language to seize center stage: by exhibiting their skill, displaying their knowledge, and challenging and resisting challenges." Tannen also discusses how classrooms use "argument and challenge" and many women don't like this and hide from it while men enjoy the challenge. Tannen's third argument says that men find it their role to voice their opinion, while women hold back what they want to say so they do not dominate the conversation. The final point Tannen makes is that schools and educators can not just use...
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...Cassidy Morin February 23, 2013 Tannen Summary The divorce rate is at nearly 50 percent. Most women blame their failing marriages on lack of communication between them and their partner. An example Tannen shared was a couple at a small gathering. The husband described his wife as the talker of the family. The group laughed, however, the man insisted he was serious and that if his wife did not talk when he got home from work that he would spend the rest of the evening in silence. Tannen explained that the lack of communication is due to the difference in the way men and women view personal relationships. Women verbalize their emotions and thoughts. Whereas men are more likely to use their actions. From childhood females form close bonds with other through sharing secrets and discussing their feelings. Women want their spouse to be their best friends. Therefore they want to be able to talk to their husbands the same way they do their female friends. Males form friendships not by talking but by doing things together. Males do not miss the talking because it was never there to establish the bond. Also male groups are larger and based on hierarchy. Males do not want to feel like the subordinate. When women talk to them they may feel like they are being talked down to. Tannen believes that marriages that are dissolved based on lack of communication can be saved if people understood the difference between male and female communication. Both...
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...Reflecting on the Tannen (2001) statement that we will see the world in patterns or groups I think it would be the natural instinct to categorize the stereotypes. From experience, you learn the type of individual you find it comfortable to associate with and tend to seek out those that fit a specific type. As one that works in the corporate world with past college and professional training, I tend to avoid the loud construction worker that works in a trade association. In doing so, I recognize that there are experiences and life lessons that I might miss out from but it has been a learned method of protection going back to my youngest days. By grouping individuals, you can quickly identify optional pockets of safety and comradery. If I was to be truthful about it, my desire to avoid confrontation and be with less volatile individuals is probably tied to the way I was raised. But if you only associate with those that you find familiar or similar, it is possible that you will miss out on a life lesson or personal growth. It is no different from taking a college course that stretches your understanding of the...
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...SUMMARY Deborah Tannen claims that the standard classroom environment of active discussion cater and benefit to men and their “pursuit of knowledge,” while hindering women because women are predisposed to listen and intimidated by men and their active participation. She states that males and females learn contrastingly. As well, Tannen argues that it is dependent of the majority of the class atmosphere that one’s learning behavior is determined. Tannen backs up her claims using her own experience and observations as a student, crafting and concluding her own experiment. She calls upon the conversation of changing class structure as well as the awareness of students and their role in the classroom to find equal opportunity in the classroom....
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...In the beginning of the book Dr. Tannen claims that although men and women grew up in the same environment, we were in a sense in a whole different world than one another. Even children develop different approaches when communicating with each other. For example, little girls will try to compromise when a conflict arises while the boys will go towards a more aggressive approach to solving it. One point mentioned in the reading was that women often seek empathy from their friends when in trouble, as opposed to men who try to figure out a solution. This could lead to many mixed messages between both men and women. For example, a woman could describe to her husband about how upset she is about how horrible her job is. The husband in return would...
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...speculate she accomplishes with readers by setting up her piece with descriptive mode first to then shift to definition? • In the next paragraph, she enters a new mode- Classification. By beginning with descriptive mode to then shift to definition, Tannen allows her audience to see the relationships between how “women” look vs. how they are defined as. Through this the reader is able to acknowledge how women automatically lower themselves in order to fit the standards of being a woman “full of dignity.” 2. “Gender markers pick up extra meanings that reflect common associations with the female gender: not quite serious, often sexual.” (Tannen) Do you agree with it? Can you think of examples from your own observations? • i do agree with her argument since “gender markers” consistently redefines and imposes the image and identity of what women are supposed to be, which is very similar to the role of beauty. Based on my observations beauty creates and defines the ideal image a woman should have, which is mostly seen in social media where it imposes the socially accepted body image a woman should have depending on the country. 3....
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...limited. Deborah Tannen in her “Sex, Lies, and Conversation” emphasizes the differences in conversation between the different genders. Communication is the key to a successful relationship, and knowledge of the differences in communication between genders is necessary for clear communication. The three main differences are body gestures, conversation and conversational habits. In their body language, women like to sit facing each other directly, their eyes on each other’s faces (Tannen 405). This to them creates a bond of friendship. Men, however, prefer to sit at angles to each other looking elsewhere or looking down, with a periodical glance at each other. Logically, the tendency for men to face away during conversations gives the women the impression that they are not listening, creating a strain in their relationships....
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...Professor of linguistics Deborah Tannen go over the distinctness between men and women and present some answers to the subject. She says that the lack of communication is often the cause of divorce. She noted that most women’s complaints in a marriage or any other relationship were that the women believe that their men do not listen to them. However, after an analysis with many couples and same sex-friends, she concluded that the problem was not that men do not listen, but they listen differently. Throughout her essay, Tannen has focused on the problems and...
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...For this week I decided to stick with Deborah Tannen's book. I choose to read Chapter 7 because I read other student's chapter review and I found it to be interesting. This chapter talks about interruptions. One of the most widely cited findings on gender and language is that men tend to interrupt women. There's an assumption that interruption is a hostile act and can be associated with controversial bullying. The person who interrupts is seen as a malevolent aggressor and the person who gets interrupted is seen as the innocent victim. These assumptions are derived from the idea that interruption is an intrusion, trampling a person's right to speak, and an attempt to dominate. Accusations of interruptions are often seen as hurtful in close...
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...1 MGT201. Communication and Soft Skills 2015 University of Management and Technology 1 Assignment 3 1. In the book's Preface, Tannen states: "...all communication is more or less crosscultural." What does she mean by this statement? Why is it important to approach communication among people as an exercise in understanding possible cross-cultural differences among them? Illustrate your points with examples. Tannen states in her book, page 14, “all communication is more or less cross-cultural:” What she means is that the culture in which a person grew up has a great influence on how this person will behave among others. Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, defined by everything from language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music, arts, it serves as the patterns of behaviors and interactions among people in the same culture, it is also how people interact and understand what are learned by socialization. Communicate with others encounters many barriers implemented by the family and society, i.e. culture which we grew up. As mentioned by Tannen “We learn to use language as we grow up, and growing up in different parts of the country, having different ethnic, religious, or class backgrounds, even just being male or female— all result in different ways of talking, all due to the culture each person absorbed growing up. And diverse in culture causes differences in conversational style which might result in individually minor...
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...Tannen further discusses the differences between the communication characteristics of men and women with a phrase she has coined, “participation listenership” (Tannen 53). Used as a conversation tactic by women to show reassurance and support, the use of listener-noises is often interpreted by men as distracting and disruptive (Tannen 53). Women perceive their job in conversation as one of encouragement or inspiration, but men have a tendency to try and “fix-it”, then move on (Tannen 53). Professor Torppa claims, “Women tend to be the relationship specialists and men tend to be task specialists” (1). Research has shown female brains are more dedicated toward language and hearing, have a larger prefrontal cortex responsible for greater self-control, and have a larger hippocampus which allows women to, with abundant detail, dredge up emotional events (see fig 2) (Ashworth & Nobile 95-97). The male brain has more cells devoted to the sex and aggression center, and there are fewer areas...
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...Brianna Wright Professor McMillen English103 05 October 2015 Analysis Essay: “Marked Women, Unmarked Men” Deborah Tannen creates a semiotic setting out of a conference of which included both men and women in order to prove that women are marked by cultural expectations while men are left unmarked. As an eyewitness to this conference, the audience can rely on Tanner to support truthful evidence of her observants. What Tanner was overseeing was the action of mindless conformity committed by the females attendants of the conference to dress in a particular fashion, because women are marked. Tanner defines the term ‘marked’ as “a staple of linguistic theory. [Noting that] it refers to the way language alters the base meaning of a word by adding a linguistic particle that has no meaning on its own” (Tannen 392). The authors’ claim in this essay is “to say anything about women and men without marking oneself as either feminist or anti-feminist, male-basher or apologist for men seems as impossible for a woman as trying to get dressed in the morning without inviting interpretations of her character” (Tannen 394). Examining the dress, presentation and posture of the people in the room allowed Tannen to conclude that women are marked and men are unmarked. Evidence provided by Tannen to her audience is derived from The Sociolinguistic Language written by Ralph Fasold. Tanner uses Fasold’s biological comparison for her term of the ‘marked woman’ to show that “biologically it is the...
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...to me, I’d be a millionaire, twice over.Yet, these are some of the conversational obstacles couples have to overcome, sometimes everyday. I, myself, got lucky. My brilliant English professor assigned a book for our class to read, and believe it or not, it has actually helped me. My conversations with my boyfriend, seem to flow a lot smoother now, thanks to some of the things I read in this book. This amazing book called You Just Don’t Understand by Deborah Tannen, talked about all of these issues. I can honestly say, I agreed with every point Tannen made in her book. Tannen talked about how men and women have different conversational styles, like when it comes to listening. Tannen says, “ When a woman is confronted with a man who does not say “yeah”---or much of anything else---she may conclude that he hasn’t been listening.”(142) Tannen also says, “To a man who expects a listener to be quietly attentive, a woman giving a stream of feedback and support will seem to be talking too much for a listener.”(142) Finally, Tannen says, “ To a woman who expects a listener to be active and enthusiastic in showing interest, attention, and support, a man who listens silently will seem not to be...
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...Daughters in Conversation. Deborah Tannen (2006) New York: Ballantine Books, pp. 272 Reviewed by Ashley M. Williams Deborah Tannen, as Michael Billig (2000: 129) noted in his review of her 1998 book The Argument Culture, has a particular knack for writing best-sellers that ‘can outstrip the celebrity biographies, cookery books and sex manuals that dominate the non-fiction book trade’. Indeed, Tannen’s latest addition to her oeuvre meant for popular consumption, You’re Wearing That? a New York Times bestseller, is no different. Focusing on mother-adult daughter conversations and the tensions that can arise from these relationships, Tannen’s goal is to help readers understand and overcome these problems. In addressing her readers, assumed to be women, she writes that: our deepest wish is to be understood and approved of by our mothers and daughters. We can get closer to that goal by listening to the ways we talk to each other, and by learning to talk to each other in new ways (p. 32). In privileging mother-daughter relationships, Tannen often mentions that these relationships are like any other, only more so – and thus the tensions, disagreements and arguments involved are more intense, personal, and potentially damaging. As in her previous popular works, her evidence of the difficulties in these relationships draws heavily on recorded interactions, anecdotes, focus group discussions, interviews, literature, and more. Tannen also uses examples from her own...
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