Powerful and Powerless Language Usage Between Genders: A Case Study Among Lecturers

Abstract

This study investigates the gender language used in workplace; specifically, on the
 comparison and exploration of power language between male and female lecturers
 who are teaching in the education field. In the effort to answer whether the general
 opinion that man includes more power language in their speech compared to woman;
 equal numbers of participants are chosen from both genders and several observations
 of teaching and learning sessions initiated by the participants in their respective
 classes were conducted by the researchers. The language used by all participants was
 analyzed based on the use of two language expressions; directives and elicitations.
 The results of the findings suggest that male lecturers used more directives and
 elicitations; with Male Lecturer A, who used a total of 27% power languages and
 Male Lecturer B, who used a total of 35% power languages. The power language
 used by the female lecturers are relatively less than male lecturers; with both female
 lecturers: Female Lecturer A and B each using a total of 19% power languages in their
 speech. Therefore, the study shows that male uses more power language than women.
 However, this study also indicates that the use of their power language also depends
 on the context of their language usage.