Language and gender

APLNG 491
Elise & Jingjing & Sherry

Size of the word: the strength of the correlation with

gender
Color: relative frequency of usage
Words and phrases are in the center
Topics: represented as the 15 most prevalent words,
surround.

Language and gender

Sex: biological differences, like chromosomes,
hormonal profiles, internal and external sex
organs
Gender: the social condition of being a
man/woman; masculine/feminine
characteristics

Language and gender

Do you think there are gender differences in
L1/L2 Language Use ?

Prevailing arguments
Men favor more
competitive speech
styles and genres.

Men referred more to

object properties and
impersonal topics (things
and facts).

Prevailing arguments

Women are innately endowed

with superior verbal abilities
and a greater predisposition
towards verbal
communication.

Women used more words related to

psychological and social
processes(feelings and relationship)
Women are more
cooperative, empathetic,
and nurturant

Prevailing arguments
Lakoff (1975) suggested that women speak a powerless
language- uncertain, weak, excessively polite-and rely
on hedges, tag questions, emphatic stress, and
hypercorrect grammar. This language is forced on them
as the price of social approval for being appropriately
feminine.

Our argument..
Gender is not a set of traits, a variable or a role, but is
a social, historical and cultural product, constructed
relations of power, produced and reproduced in
interaction between and among men and women.
Masculinities and femininities, as well as beliefs and
ideas about relations between the sexes, may vary
across cultures as well as over time within a culture.

Examine language and gender in a new light

Power and inequality
Gendered agency, motivation, and investment
Socialization patterns

Power and Inequality

---Gendered access to linguistic resources

Gender as a system of social relations and practices

structures differential opportunities for access to
linguistic resources.

Power and Inequality

---Gendered access to linguistic resources
Example 1
Goldsteins (1995)
Culture context: Portuguese women, lack of family
responsibilities, inappropriate in the same classroom
with male strangers
Certain culture prevents women from accessing to
second language resources

Power and Inequality

Example 2

---Gendered access to linguistic resources

Harvey (1994)
Culture context: Indigenous womens access to Spanish, South America
Ideal masculinity- high value of being bilingual
Ideal femininity- firmly inside community
Inside world
Female
transmitters of
home
languages

Male
Mediator

Outside world
finance and
knowledge

Power and Inequality

---Gendered access to linguistic resources
Example 3
Pichette (2000)
Context: a number of male and female Westerners living in Japan comparing
contexts in which they use the language and their linguistic
achievements.
Western men have many more chances to participate in informal interaction,
as a result, acquire the language in a wider range of context than Western
women.

Pedagogical Implication

Understand students cultural constraints

Offer varied resources

Make wise pedagogical decision: grouping

Do not treat students as undifferentiated group,

value individual differences

Gendered agency, motivation &

investment
Influence the decision-making process
Influence the outcomes of second language
learning and language shift

Gendered agency, motivation & investment

Example 1
Piller & Takahashis study (2006)

Self-interested motives of women

A group of Japanese women who had
invested significant resources in acquiring
English because of their desire to contract
relationships with Anglophone men.

Gendered agency, motivation & investment

Japan men
Higher level of

Anglo-saxon men
More glamorous
looking

job-security
lower rates of
divorce

less traditional in their

attitudes to women

Gendered agency, motivation & investment

Example 2
Herbert (1992)
Self-interested motives of men
Thonga people in South Africa
Men lead the language and culture shift to Zulu.

Gendered agency, motivation & investment

Gendered agency, motivation & investment

Women
Men
Higher prestige
More power

Gendered agency, motivation & investment

Example 3
Aikio (1992)
Women from Sami community, Finland
World War II
refuse to learn
Finnish

shift to Finnish

Gendered agency, motivation & investment

Sami women
Higher social &
economic status
Freedom to travel

Finnish women
Economically
disadvantaged
Dependent on their
husbands
Forced to stay in one
spot

Pedagogical implication
Make ongoing assessment
Do ongoing adjustment
Encourage learners investment
Provide varied opportunities and resources accordingly

Socialization patterns
Gendered peer networks influence the patterns of
language use
Socialization agents influence second language
learning outcomes (textbook, social media)

Socialization patterns
Example 1
Marjorie Harness Goodwin (2006)
Interactions among a group of pre-adolescent girls in
Los Angeles
Girl's speech styles contest the generalization that
girls acquire a more supportive, cooperative style.

Socialization patterns
Internal hierarchy
Issue of orders:leaders, followers
Tag-along girl, subjected to bullying
Argue about rules
Engage in boasting: skills, possession, wealth of
families

Socialization patterns
Example 2
Woodlard (1997) case study
Gendered friendship circles in high school in Barcelona
area
Gendered friendship practices can affect the use of
bilingual repertoire.

Boys: ethnically mixed

and linguistically
diverse (mixed Catalan
and Castilian boys)
Girls: ethnic and
linguistic homogeneous
group

Socialization patterns
Example 3
McGregor, 1998; Siegal & Okamoto, 1996
EFL textbooks revealed stereotyped male and female in texts and
illustrations
Chairman v.s Chair leader
man v.s human
man-made v.s manufactured
policeman/policewomen v.s police officer
Pronoun he v.s male and female

Why avoid sexism in language?

Some people feel insulted by sexist language
Sexist language creates an image of a society where
women have lower social and economic status than
men.
Using nonsexist language may change the way that
users of English think about gender roles

Pedagogical implication

Understand individual differences and socialization

background might affect learning progress

Do not treat students as undifferentiated group

Provide varied opportunities and resources accordingly
Raise awareness of gender issues
Avoid language use conflicts

Teaching gender-sensitive language

Pronouns
They
If students want to learn more about gender inequality, they should take Intro to Womens
Studies.

She or he (she/he)
Each student who majors in Womens Studies major must take a course in Feminist Theory. She
or he may also get course credit for completing an internship at a local organization that
benefits women.

Reference: University of North Carolina, writing centerhttp://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/gender-sensitive-language/

Gender-sensitive languages
Alternate genders and pronouns
Respond as a reader, explaining what and how you were/are thinking as you read her texts so
that she can discover where a reader might struggle with her writing.Ask him to outline the
draft to reveal the organization of the paper.Ask her to describe her purpose and audience
and show how she has taken them into account in her writing.

Eliminate the pronoun altogether

Allan Johnson is a contemporary feminist theorist. This writer and professor gave a speech at
UNC in the fall of 2007.
Reference: University of North Carolina, writing centerhttp://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/gender-sensitive-language/

space

time

Culture
context

socialization
agents

power

resources

social interactions
motivation

agency

investment