Deborah Tannen Analysis

Deborah Tannen is the author of “How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently.” This article was published in the “Chronicle of Higher Education.” Tannen is the author of several books explaining how individuals engage in conversation. Her argument is that in a classroom setting, males engage in more conversation than females. She challenges different teaching styles, and she determines that an individual’s conversation style is relative to the situation they are in. She uses examples from a book by Walter Ong and from several sociologists and anthropologists. Tannen uses formal language throughout her article.
One of Tannen’s main claims is that in the classroom setting, males engage in more conversation than females do. She agrees

with Walter Org on the point that in our society today, it is believed that the only way to truly learn is to do it through arguments and debate. Tannen also claims that different teaching styles directly influence how people interact with others. Her theory is that a student who prefers to not participate much in front of the whole class will more than likely talk a lot when put into a smaller group of students. Tannen strongly believes that a student’s behavior is determined by what is going on around him or her. She also attributes this behavior to students of different ethnicities. She believes that a student’s ethnicity also effects how they react in social situations.
In this article, Tannen gives evidence to show that typically, in a classroom setting, male students talk more and are more involved than female students. The author uses ample evidence to support her claim. She references several professionals in this field to better prover her point. She has firsthand experience as a teacher, so she explains how she has observed her students.