Gender, Language And Computer-mediatedCommunication

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate gender and language in the context of educational computer-mediated interactions. As the use of online discussion groups in campus-based education increases, so does the need to investigate the impact of gender on language and communication styles in this context. It has been claimed that the lack of social context cues in computer-mediated communication (CMC) equalises participation, resulting in a more democratic environment than face-to-face communication. However, gender differences in power and language use have been found online. In total, 197 students (148 females, 49 males) participated in open-ended online discussion as an optional part of their introductory psychology module. Informed consent was sought from the online participants to download the electronic discourse for analysis using Atlas.ti 4.2. Participation and language use were analysed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. A detailed coding scheme was developed during the pilot study that incorporated various linguistic, stylistic, paralinguistic and task variables. This coding scheme was used in subsequent studies and 699 messages from four studies were coded in total. Males and females were similar overall with regard to participation as shown by the total number of posts and mean number of words per post. However, gender-related patterns in language use and interaction styles were found. The results are discussed in relation to previous literature on gender and language in both face-to-face and computermediated contexts and in relation to the democratising theories of CMC. The implications of the results for the use of CMC in Higher Education will also be considered.