Outline of my First Oral Presentation

Psychology 409b 1/17/06

Outline of my First Oral Presentation

By Cynthia Adams

Tannen, Deborah. Gender & Discourse. New York: Oxford University Press. 1994, (pages 3-14).

Instructions for this activity are found at:

www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/g24-oral1.htm

Instructor: Dr. Leon James

1) Introduction

i) Conversations Style (pg. 5): a term Tannen borrowed from Robin Lakoff, which refers to the concept that misunderstanding can arise from different conversational styles.

ii) Style differ cross-culturally and cross-gender and as a result of these systematic differences in communicative style misunderstanding often occur.

2) Concepts:

i) Role of dominance in cultural Difference Framework

ii) Misjudgments in communication exist between genders due to conversation style.

iii) Role of dominance is not excluded from the conversational style view it is recognized and assumed to be involved in conservational styles.

iv) Different conversational styles often put women in an inferior position in their interaction with men

v) Due to this it seems as though women are weaker than men and men dominate them

vi) Example- we live in a patriarchal society, where men are the breadwinners of the household; thus they have a louder more significant voice. Women on the other hand have a softer less significant voice.

vii) It is both interaction between 2 people and interpretation of listener that determinates context of conversation –this involves two people.

viii) Tannen's critics claim she fails to recognize this role of dominance-on the contrary she acknowledges that it does exits and the consequences of style differences and dominance work to the disadvantages of members of groups that are stereotyped or stigmatized in our society and to the advantage of those groups who have the power to enforce their meaning or interpretations.

3) Nature vs. Nurture Dichotomy (pg. 12)

i) This dichotomy is used to describe the difference of men and women through purely biological origins or purely cultural origins.

ii) This is never addressed in framework of conversational style regards to origin of gender differences

iii) Dichotomy is irrelevant to the discussion of conversational styles. To describe differences is not to attribute to either biological or cultural sources

iv) Not the task of linguist to tell anyone how they should speak rather they account for ways in which they do speak.

v) Task is to describe the patterns of language we observe and not to lay down rules of the language

vi) According to Tannen to effect change what is required is an understanding of the patterns of human behavior as they exist in our society today and to have an appreciation of those complex patterns and a humane respect for other human beings.