Gender performance through turn-taking organisation in a foreign language classroom

Abstract

ABSTRACT According to research in pragmatics, gender represents an important factor in individuals’ turn-taking behaviour, with results indicating overall male-dominated conversational patterns. Despite the significance of gender in the students’ conversational styles in an academic setting, gender and turn-taking has yet to be investigated in the foreign language classroom. Therefore, the present case-study investigates gender as performed in turn-taking organisation in the Spanish language classroom with the focus on floor management, linguistic means of expressing conversational styles, and content of the interaction in its relation to gender. Qualitative conversation analysis of 9 pair interactions of students conducting a problem-solving task in a foreign language (Spanish) overall support the hypothesis of gender-related differences in conversational styles – a pattern previously established in a native-language environment. Specifically, the main differentiation of interlocutor-oriented collaborative female vs. self-oriented competitive male style was found in the content-level patterns. Moreover, the findings of the study provide additional evidence for the argument of gender being shaped and constructed in society, as well as reflection of gender stereotypes in the content of the message conveyed by the individuals.