The differences of communication between male and female gender affect social work education when the 3 areas are concerned: training students for social work, interaction between staff members and interaction between students and faculty members. Communication is one very significant tool in the social work where teaching and developing of relations is concerned. This article explains gender difference from perspective of cross-culture. Men listen to act accordingly and women listen so that they could complete some missing scenario and ask more questions than men. Conversation topics are started by women though concluded finally by men. According to research, women interrupt more and generally males talk more. There are many biological and psychological theories which explain these differences. These differences could better be understood when communication which is cross-cultural takes place.
According to Borker and Maltz (1982) women and men of America are from varied sociolinguistic cultures and have learnt conversation rules differently. Language rules are taught to children at an early age. Little girls work and interact within small homogeneous boys-girls groups and make supportive comments whereas boys go for bigger groups and make challenging comments. When they group up, these patterns continue and sometimes misunderstandings occur due to such differences. Women nod head to encourage speaker whereas men consider it to be a gesture for agreement. Men do not nod and women consider they are not listening. Women tend to use questions to continue or start off a conversation and men think it is because of less knowledge of women. Even though females give more affective response, still where nonverbal communication is concerned...
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...wards the conversations regarding feelings and emotions. According to what I have observed men are more open when it comes to expressing themselves as compared to women.
It is rightly said that women acquire better skills when an interview is conducted as compared to men due to their self-disclosure and empathy etc. but men can easily learn them too if they make some effort by implying suitable facial expressions and appropriate overall demeanor and that is where the social work education plays its part.
I also felt that it is majorly due to the different contexts in which men and women are analyzed that creates more difference. If some informal situation is considered and comparison made between the language and style of communication of men and women, there would only be some minor differences and more similarities where language and communication is concerned.
“Men are from Mars, women are from Venus” as the famous saying of John Gray goes. It is believed men and women are nothing alike in almost every aspect. In Deborah Tannen’s essay “Gender in the classroom: Teacher’s Classroom Strategies Should Recognize that Men and Women Use Language Differently” she focused on how men and women differ when it comes to communicating, with emphasis on how it effects to how men and women behave in the classroom.
Deborah Tannen is the author of the book You Just Don't Understand where she analyzes the different meanings of communication between men and women. Her research shows that women and men use the same words and phrases and yet can interpret and react to those same words and phrases differently. Tannen compares the two sexes to find men use their conversation as a type of competition or to preserve their independence. For example, men talk about their knowledge regarding sports, cars, women, exc. Meanwhile, women try to foster intimacy through communication. For instance, women often talk and relate on a personal level. Throughout Tannen's book she uses "cross-cultural communication" to describe the differences between the language of men and women. Tannen observed that, "For males, conversation is the way you negotiate your status in the group and keep people from pushing you around; you use talk to preserve your independence. Females, on the other hand, use conversation to negotiate closeness and intimacy; talk is the essence of intimacy, so being best friends means sitting and talking. For boys, activities, doing things together, are central. Just sitting and talking is not an essential part of friendship. They're friends with the boys they do things with" (Tannen 95).
In her article “But What Do You Mean” Deborah Tannen, claims that there is a huge difference in the style of communicating between men and women. Tannen breaks these down into seven different categories; apologies, criticism, thank-yous, fighting, praise, complaints, and jokes. With each of these she compares men to women by explaining the common misconceptions that each of the genders do. The different style of communication can cause some problems at the workplace and even affect the environment. The different styles of communication has been around forever and almost becomes a “ritual”(299). Tannen is effective with mainly women and not men. She is primarily successful with women due to the fact that her tone targets women, also the organization
In the article "How male and female students use language differently" written by Deborah Tannen, she reveals how male and female students contrast as per their language in the classroom. Throughout the story, the author utilizes her observations in her class to support her idea. She states that male students are more open than female students when talking in public. Tannen argues that male students engage more in gathering than female students. The author says that boys are more loquacious in the classroom, and are more participative. While female students are more tranquil and typically just talk inside their gathering of few students. Tannen also point out that female students has a friend with whom she sits next to and shares her secrets
In the introduction of Deborah Tannen’s “Conversation Style: Talking on the Job”, she compares and contrasts the ways men and women communicate. This reminds me of what I tell people that are struggling in their relationships. Women and men express themselves differently. Women think, but men act. If you can’t wrap your head around this, being in a relationship with anyone is going to be hard. Yet, this is such a basic way of looking at this issue. Not only are the genders vastly different, but each person relates to the world around them in a certain way. He or she also needs to be related to in a specific way. Looking at personalities and personal histories can give a better look at the way we communicate with each other. Tannen examines
Do men and women effectively communicate in the same way, or is it just a conversation of misunderstanding? There is constantly a new interest in whether men and women converse successfully. Professor and journalist, Deborah Tannen writes, “Sex, Lies, and Conversation: Why Is It So Hard for Men and Women to Talk to Each Other?” Tannen compares and contrasts all conversational styles, and explains how the expectation of dialogue affects how men and women converse. Tannen focuses on the subject of marriage and the imbalance of interest between male and female couples. The contrasting perspective however comes from, Deborah Cameron, author of, “What Language Barrier”. Cameron conveys that the stereotypes left upon male and female communication
Social work practice requires many skills, which need much practice themselves. This needs social work students to be open to trying within safe environments and scenario’s for mistake, such as with their peers and with emotional safe scenarios such as stress at University. This begins with a requirement to do 5 minutes of interviewing with a peer which includes many social work skills such as active listening, encouraging, paraphrasing, being/creating a welcoming and safe environment and other such basic and beginning skills.
Further evidence of communicative differences exist between men and women in various other social settings as well. Consider, for example, those individuals employed in customer service-related Jobs. While in JC Penny, I noticed that female customer service representatives were more apt to offer immediate friendly assistance than the male reps. Men are not as cocky nor as confident in this sort of situation; their eyes tend to dart around the area of the store while the eyes of a women remain focused upon the eyes of the customer. The men seem to communicate with a lot less smiles. Apparently they have to get past a certain “ice-breaking'; point before they will feel comfortable with a genuine look of happiness.
In the present United States, a mixture of males and females make up a university classroom. In life, males and females have different conversational styles. The ways that they communicate to each other in a conversation, as well as how they communicate with their instructors and peers in the classroom. Although there is a combination of both genders in the classrooms, schools gravitate more towards using learning techniques that are more applicable towards men than women (Tannen 369). When teaching with a mixture of people that learn differently, it is difficult to have a certain technique to use that would help everybody in the same way. Yet it is important that equal opportunities are given to both genders that allows them to do their best and succeed in their academic careers. Educational professionals need to understand the conversational differences in gender and have better teaching strategies that fit both male and female conversational styles.
After reading the different studies and research in the chapter I have a much different view than before. I reflected on my whole life and noticed that when I am in a more private and relaxed setting my wife usually does a lot of the talking. But in more formal settings like when we attend seminars together or when we took a college class together, I am doing more of the talking. This is just one example of how this study actually reflects my everyday life. Another example of how this chapter changed my view is the way male and female speech occurs in my class. I was really taken back from my teaching and I noticed that this is true of my classroom and I didn 't even know this! Many times when a girl answers a question or tries to provide her different insight of the question provided I sense that many feel she is trying to show off. This chapter honestly will helped me get rid of many assumptions I 've always had. I will also try to ensure all my students have the social confidence in my classroom and try to help all students contribute to the
Author Deborah Tannen became well known for composing her book, “You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation.” Like Gray, Tannen includes her perception on how men and women differ in communication. In addition, she includes her observations on how early does the differences occur. Tannen states that gender difference in communication styles appear at a young age. She then supports her claim by providing how young boys and girls achieve friends. They young boys created relationships with one another by doing things together. Young girls created relationships by simply talking to one another. According to Tanner, men only will approach conversations with the goal of “transmitting information” or “offering advice” (Tannen, 1990). She also includes that when women are discussing a problem within one another, the women form a bond together and seek to maintain an intimate relationship. However, when men hear women talking about problems, they offer a quick solution and then dismiss the problem. These results give the belief of why there are more woman social workers and counselors than males. Tannen’s book helped explain why women find men as insensitive. For example, if a couple is talking and the female directs a conversation to a conflict that she’s having, the male wouldn’t show as much compassion. He would only offer solutions to the problem and then try to direct
This paper aims to examine how gender differences are manifested in linguistic behavior. It focuses on the way men and women speak rather than that they are spoken about. Their speech differences in politeness, interaction, style and confidence are socialization practices which connote the power inequality between the two sexes. Examples of genderlects will be presented, and possible explanations from different perspectives will be evaluated before making a reasonable conclusion on the issue.
Communication is a necessary skill for success in life. Misunderstandings in communication occur frequently between people due to language and perceptual differences. In intimate relationships, this misunderstanding in communication between the man and the woman leads to great agitation and tension -- seemingly the two sexes speak in completely different vernaculars. The Genderlect Style Theory explains that men and women talk in distinct cultural dialects and mannerisms, which reflect the different genders’ objectives; men desire status and achievement, while women desire personal connections and relationships. In the following pages, I will identify the theorist behind the Genderlect Style Theory, examine her educational history, and discuss other contributions she has made in the world of social sciences and psychology. Using physical examples, I will demonstrate the Genderlect Style Theory in the real world to steel our understanding. Lastly, I will explain what I have personally gleaned from my research.
How does language affect our interaction with other genders? Language is the basis of all interaction. The language we use is essential to other’s perceptions of us. We instinctively know this, so we cater our language to suit how we want to be perceived by others. Language is not the only factor in perception though. Other’s interpretation of our language is as important an ingredient in their perception of us as the language we use is. Our perceptions of each other, more than anything else dictate our interactions with each other. The essential question is does interpretation of language vary between genders?
The book An Intorduction of Sociolinguistics is an outstanding introductary book in the field of sociolinguistics. It encompasses a wide range of language issues. In chapter 13, Wardhaugh provides a good insight to the relationship between language and gender. He explains gender differences of language-in-use with concise examples. Wardhaugh riases questions about sexist language and guides readers to look closer at how people use language differently because of their own gender in daily life. According to the Whorfian hypothesis, which indicates that the way people use language reflects their thoughts, different genders adapt different communication strategies.