My Students Background On Language And Gender example essay topic

Language and Gender might not seem like the most interesting topic to a high school class, but I am here as a future teacher to show that the differences between the sexes and the way they use language have affected history and continues today to shape the way society thinks and functions. By providing history on gender, language, and giving examples of the differences between the sexes, I feel that I can provide valuable information for my future students, and at the same time make this future high school grammar class fun. According to College of Arts and Science / Language and Gender, women are more polite then men, and they speak better than men... but men and women speak in particular ways mostly because those ways are associated with their gender. In simpler terms, women and men are different in the way they act, live life, and socialize. In this article, they are determining that women are better speakers based on the fact that women are more polite. Jennifer Coates, author of Women, Men, and Language states that when women talk to each other they reveal a lot about their personal life, they let all speakers finish their sentences, and they try to have everyone participate.

Women are often criticized for interrupting when they are in a conversation, however Thomas states that women do not interrupt, they overlap. "Overlapping is where one speaker finished the others utterance or perhaps inserts a word here or there into the steam of the partner's sentences. The overall opinion of all my resources are the women use language differently than men because women seem more interested in what is going on in each others lives. Men use language is a very different way than women. Men tend to "show an early tendency to affiliate with a group and attend to their standing in a hierarchy.

According to Thomas, men are likely to gravitate toward activities such as games, joke telling, and being recognized as the strongest contender in a forum of their peers. Thomas also says that speech in such events is used to prove their prowess and ability. According to Coates, men rarely talk about their personal relationships, and feelings. She also states that men often seek straightforward solutions to problems and useful advice. There is much research on how and why women are different than men when is comes to language, but there is less research on men. The research on men mostly deals with the historical backgrounds on how men dominated the past.

Not long ago, men dominated the home, the workforce, and the language. "In 1646, Joshua Poole ruled that the male should precede the female. This was both more "natural" and more "proper" as men were the "worthier sex". In 1922, Otto Jespersen published a book and stated that women's vocabulary is less extensive than men's and claims that the periphery of language and the development of new words are only for men's speech. But with the future comes change. In December 1996, several Native American Women petitioned the state of Wisconsin to remove the term "squaw" from all the geographical names of places around the state.

Apparently the term "squaw" was a slang term used by the early European men referring to the women genitalia. There are many examples of how men used language to patronize, control, and insult, and it is still done today. "A master is in control, but a mistress is kept for sex. If a man has a client, he is a businessman, if a woman has a client, she is a prostitute".

But the Native American women who petitioned the state of Wisconsin are just a few people who have helped to change the way we use language. Women and men are different in more ways than the obvious; language separates a man from a woman. A woman is more emotional, more concerned, and more willing to listen. While a man on the other hand wants to dominate the conversation and is not as willing to listen to someone's personal life or share his own personal information. As a future teacher, I would give my students background on language and gender and use the following exercises to make my students realize how much language and gender affects us all. There are many different activities that a teacher could use in their classroom.

One activity created for teens is called a "fishbowl". The activities consist of all the girls in the classroom sitting in an inner circle, while the boys sit on the outside and girls discuss a question such as: What would it be like being a boy for a day? Then switch... it becomes very clear that there are many more negative characteristics associated with females than men. Another example of an activity is where the teacher asks a group to think of any insulting terms (excluding genital references) that directly insult men as men. It is amazing to see that the students will be able to identify insulting terms for women but will have a more difficult time finding terms that will insult men.

There are many activities that a teacher can present to their students. Another activity would be to have the students keep a diary in which students' record observations on language and gender and how these observations have reflected on them. I feel that Language and Gender is an important part of Grammar and life. Teaching students the important parts of the history of grammar should always be the objective for an English teacher.

By using the "shock theory" an English teacher will be able to teach valuable lessons to his / her students and hopefully get them thinking.