Gender Differences In Language Use Research Articles

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN LANGUAGE USE AND POLITENESS STRATEGIES

This article delves into the nuanced topic of gender differences in language use and politeness strategies, exploring the ways in which individuals' gender identities shape their communication styles. Drawing on research from sociolinguistics and communication studies, the article examines the various ways in which men and women may employ different speech patterns, vocabulary, and politeness strategies in their interactions. Additionally, the article considers the intersectionality of gender with other social factors, such as race, class, and sexual orientation, to provide a more holistic understanding of gendered language use. Implications for communication and relationships, as well as suggestions for future research, are also discussed.

Gender Differences in Language Use in Talks at Google

This study examines the linguistic features utilised by male and female native English speakers during their Talks at Google using Lakoff and Lakoff’s framework of women’s language. The analysis is conducted on a sample of 14 videos, consisting of seven for each gender, using a mixed-method approach. The quantitative analysis presents the frequencies of the utterances used by the speakers, while the qualitative analysis identifies the language forms employed by each gender. The findings reveal that both genders employed the linguistic features suggested by Lakoff in their talks. Contrary to Lakoff and Lakoff’s assumptions, the female speakers utilised fewer linguistic features, accounting for only 47.43% of the features present in the corpus. Specifically, female speakers used intensifiers, tag questions and humour more frequently than male speakers, while male speakers employed empty adjectives, hedges, hypercorrect grammar and super polite forms more often than female speakers. The results provide insights into the language usage patterns of each gender and allude to possible changes in women’s use of linguistic patterns.

Language shift: gender differences in Chaouia use in Algeria

Abstract The paper explored the shift away from Chaouia, a variety of Tamazight, to the use of Algerian Arabic in Batna (northeast Algeria). The Chaouia-speaking community had recently witnessed a large rural exodus and significant social changes and mobility due to economic opportunities, education and ethnic contact. The paper focused on gender differences in language use and considered how socialisation and cultural ideologies regarding men’s and women’s relationship to language shape linguistic decisions and choices. Building upon representations of masculinity and femininity, we investigated the ways in which these gendered practices constrain or restrict Chaouia use among working-class Chaouias. We used a qualitative approach with an embedded quantitative element to analyse interviews and surveys across the domestic setting as well as schools and social networks in Batna to examine the interplay between gender identities and language socialisation at home, language choices at school and among friends. The increase in cross-ethnic contact with the larger Arabic-speaking community had introduced significant re-considerations of social and linguistic priorities in the community. The findings showed a clear impact of parents on the acquisition of a gendered pattern of language choice, with boys being socialised in Chaouia and girls in Algerian Arabic. This pattern was further reinforced at school and among peers through teachers and social networks. Females’ networks were ethnolinguistically heterogeneous whereas males’ networks were Amazigh-oriented. Hence, the traditional link of Tamazight to femininity was re-negotiated to generate a discourse of blame for the ongoing language shift and identity loss.

Gender Representation in Moroccan EFL Textbooks’ Conversations: A Quantitative and Qualitative Content Analysis

By employing two analytical methods, this study investigates gender representation in the conversations of an EFL textbook currently used in Moroccan secondary schools. First, a quantitative content analysis studies the following four criteria: (1) dialogue initiation, (2) turn-taking, (3) the number of words used, and (4) the number of participants. Second, a qualitative content analysis of all the textbook conversations is carried out by examining males’ and females’ topics of the talks, their active/passive roles, their high/low status, and gender differences in language use. Although the results indicated a minor numeric difference favouring males, the qualitative analysis proved an obvious stereotypical depiction of female participants in conversations' topics by connecting them with household chores' issues and assigning them traditional gender roles. Furthermore, gender differences in language use were discovered, which confirms the results of prominent figures in the area, such as Lakoff (1975), Spender (1980), and Tannen (1991). The paper ends with a conclusion and some recommendations aiming at supporting textbooks free of sexist attitudes.

Two Studies Investigating Gender Differences in Response to Facebook Status Updates

We conducted two studies to examine gender differences in in response to Facebook status updates. The first study surveyed 600 undergraduate students (388 females and 207 males), and analysed males’ and females’ responses to Facebook status updates. Females were significantly more likely to post a public reply than males, and female public replies also contained higher levels of emotional support. There were no significant gender differences in private replies to Facebook status updates. Males showed significantly higher levels of emotional support in private messages than in public replies. There was no significant difference in terms of level of emotional support between females’ public replies and private messages. The second study investigated gender differences in response to Facebook status updates from same gender friends compared to opposite gender friends. We surveyed 522 undergraduate students (216 females and 306 males), and analysed males’ and females’ responses to two Facebook status updates: one from a same gender close friend and one from an opposite gender close friend. Females showed higher levels of emotional support than males to a Facebook status update from a same gender friend. In contrast, there were no significant gender differences in response to an opposite gender friend. Males showed higher levels of emotional support in private replies than public replies to same gender friends. There was no difference in level of emotional support between females’ public replies and private messages. The implications of these findings for explanations of gender differences in language use are discussed

Culture-Shaped Language of Male and Female Writers:

This research would like to investigate how the writers of different genders from different cultures (western or American and Asian) reflected the differences in the language they used in their novels. Although gender differences were known to result from cultural differences, less research had been done in terms of contrasting the gender of different cultures, yet to discuss them in terms of gender roles as writers. This present research aimed to explore the role of gender in constructing language to examine gender stereotypes from a linguistic perspective and describe gender differences in language use. It used a library study as its method, which included several steps of reading the material, collecting and listing the swear words and adjectives used, categorizing the choice of words, and analyzing the choices. The research concludes that culture does contribute to the differences in how swear words are expressed, in which Indonesian writers use fewer swear words and avoid using vulgar words and profanity. In other words, gender differences do not affect adjectives used in Bahasa Indonesia.

Using Corpus Analyses to Help Address the DIF Interpretation: Gender Differences in Standardized Writing Assessment.

Addressing differential item functioning (DIF) provides validity evidence to support the interpretation of test scores across groups. Conventional DIF methods flag DIF items statistically, but often fail to consolidate a substantive interpretation. The lack of interpretability of DIF results is particularly pronounced in writing assessment where the matching of test takers’ proficiency levels often relies on external variables and the reported DIF effect is frequently small in magnitude. Using responses to a prompt that showed small gender DIF favoring female test takers, we demonstrate a corpus-based approach that helps address DIF interpretation. To provide linguistic insights into the possible sources of the small DIF effect, this study compared a gender-balanced corpus of 826 writing samples matched by test takers’ performance on the reading and listening components of the test. Four groups of linguistic features that correspond to the rating dimensions, and thus partially represent the writing construct were analyzed. They include (1) sentiment and social cognition, (2) cohesion, (3) syntactic features, and (4) lexical features. After initial screening, 123 linguistic features, all of which were correlated with the writing scores, were retained for gender comparison. Among these selected features, female test takers’ writing samples scored higher on six of them with small effect sizes in the categories of cohesion and syntactic features. Three of the six features were positively correlated with higher writing scores, while the other three were negative. These results are largely consistent with previous findings of gender differences in language use. Additionally, the small differences in the language features of the writing samples (in terms of the small number of features that differ between genders and the small effect size of the observed differences) are consistent with the previous DIF results, both suggesting that the effect of gender differences on the writing scores is likely to be very small. In sum, the corpus-based findings provide linguistic insights into the gender-related language differences and their potential consequences in a testing context. These findings are meaningful for furthering our understanding of the small gender DIF effect identified through statistical analysis, which lends support to the validity of writing scores.

(Not) Lost in Translation: Psychological Adaptation Occurs During Speech Translation

While language style is considered to be automatic and relatively stable, its plasticity has not yet been studied in translations that require the translator to “step into the shoes of another person.” In the present study, we propose a psychological model of language adaptation in translations. Focusing on an established interindividual difference marker of language style, that is, gender, we examined whether translators assimilate to the original gendered style or implicitly project their own gendered language style. In a preregistered study, we investigated gender differences in language use in TED Talks (N = 1,647) and their translations (N = 544) in same- versus opposite-gender speaker/translator dyads. The results showed that translators assimilated to gendered language styles even when in mismatch to their own gender. This challenges predominating views on language style as fixed and fosters a more dynamic view of language style as also being shaped by social context.

AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTIC STUDY: LANGUAGE AND GENDER IN EFL CLASSROOM

Gender differences are pivotal in EFL (English as A Foreign Language) classroom. The aims of this anthropological linguistic study are to figure out the extent of female and male learners’ differences in EFL classroom, the factors which affect the gender differences in the EFL learners’ language use, and the effects that learners’ gender differences in language use bring to the EFL classroom. Having been designed as a conceptual study, several research findings were scrutinized to answer the research questions. It can be wrapped up that both male and female are distinctive in using English as an international language due to the reasons in communication. Further, it was revealed that multiple factors affect gender differences in using language within the EFL classes; such as: classroom environment, cultural, and social impacts. Finally, the findings definitely convey positive impacts towards the future EFL teaching and learning process.

Gender Differences in the Speech Events of Kurdistan Parliament

This study tackles the differences between male and female MPs’ language in Kurdistan Parliament and the reasons behind such differences. The study investigates the extent and the type of gender differences between male and female MPs in Kurdistan and how these differences may lead to misunderstandings while debating. . In addition, the study highlights the MPs’ perspective on gender stereotypes and how such perspectives may affect their interactions. A quantitative method has been used to analyze the data of the study. First, an ethnographic description of Kurdistan Parliament according to Hymes's speaking framework was given, focusing on the setting, the participants and the act sequence. Second, a questionnaire was prepared as the data collection tool of the study. Based on the analysis of the collected data, it was found out that both male and female MPs strongly agreed that gender differences in language use could lead to misunderstandings. Moreover, MPs confirmed that the Kurdish society is patriarchal, and this leads to male dominance in most of the social interactions including parliamentary debates.

Creating and Testing Specialized Dictionaries for Text Analysis

Practitioners in many domains–e.g., clinical psychologists, college instructors, researchers–collect written responses from clients. A well-developed method that has been applied to texts from sources like these is the computer application Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). LIWC uses the words in texts as cues to a person’s thought processes, emotional states, intentions, and motivations. In the present study, we adopt analytic principles from LIWC and develop and test an alternative method of text analysis using naïve Bayes methods. We further show how output from the naïve Bayes analysis can be used for mark up of student work in order to provide immediate, constructive feedback to students and instructors.
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An Exploration of Beliefs about Gender Differences in Language Use

It is the natural order of things for humans to acquire beliefs and conform to stereotypes in an attempt to explain phenomena surrounding them. These mental constructs are known to have a pervasive influence on the way people think and act, and therefore are partly responsible for shaping our social reality. Thus, due to their impact, scientific exploration is needed to illuminate their nature and so enable humans to act upon these findings. Beliefs or stereotypes that are being studied in this particular research are those held about the differences in language use by men and women. Acknowledging that people in Bosnia and Herzegovina largely comply to traditional, patriarchal social norms, this study aims to elucidate the matter by investigating whether students of a private university situated in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, conform to widespread stereotypes about language and gender, women’s speech and men’s speech in particular, and whether males and females differ in conformity to the stereotypes.

FEMININITY AND MASCULINITY IN LANGUAGE (BASED ON SLAVIC AND NON-SLAVIC LANGUAGES)

Men and women use language differently. Gender differences in language use in the course of the historical development of human society have been reflected in the language structure. This problem is supported by the feminist movement and is being actively researched in the USA, Japan and Europe. Modern Slavic languages have been researched in this aspect too. Gender asymmetry in language and communication has been traced in Slavic and non-Slavic languages. This article deals with femininity and masculinity as socio-cultural categories inseparable from language and communication. Special attention is paid to gender asymmetry and disproportionate representation оf gender-marked speakers in language, gender stereotyping and prospects of ist overcoming. Gender asymmetry and stereotyping is reflected in a set of proverbs describing women in reference to dichotomy “femininity – masculinity”, elaborated on cognitive basis, which reflects characteristic features of men and women communication. Suggestions developed by gender linguistics in reference to supporting the equal status of feminine and masculine gender in language are not always reflected in speech strategies at present. It is important to attract attention of speakers of both genders to this issue as it can provide the possibility of in-depth understanding of speech behavior of people representing different worldviews – masculine and feminine.

Communication Strategies Used by Iranian EFL Learners and English Native Speakers: Gender in Focus

<p>This article was intended to explore the frequency and order of communication strategies used by Iranian male and female EFL earners as well as English native speakers while facing communication breakdowns. Furthermore, it was aimed to investigate the difference between native speakers and non-native speakers of English in their use of communication strategies. In addition, it was probed whether gender had any effects on the use of these strategies among native and non-native speakers. To this end, the data were collected through the communication strategy questionnaire distributed among 30 male and female Iranian intermediate EFL learners and 15 English native speakers. The design of this study was a quantitative one in which the questionnaire and thus numerical data were applied. To analyze the data, Cronbach alpha and independent-samples t-tests were used. The results indicated that non-verbal and social affective strategies were the most frequent strategies used by non-native speakers and native speakers of English, respectively. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between male and female Iranian EFL learners, but a significant difference between male and female English native speakers were seen. It can be concluded that language proficiency can contribute to the type and frequency of communications strategies which are used non-native speakers; likewise, it can play a significant role in gender differences in language use.<em></em></p>

A study of ontogenetic level of language development and gender differences affecting language use in Acehnese language

There have been numerous studies analysing gender differences in language use. Most of them predominantly adopted static or hierarchical approach with obsolete understanding of gender differences. Concurrently with the high demand of socio-cultural aspects inclusion in language development studies, the research of gender in language use has also driven to the same direction with mixed talk and the use of dynamic approach as an alternative for more inclusive socio-cultural spectrum. Two student university classes were observed and their classroom conversations in mixed gender were meticulously selected for detailed analysis via N-VIVO. The study shows that social dimensions such as power, status, economy, and identity seem to be influential to Acehnese language users in mixed talks. Yet, some mixed talks are more likely to be affected by individual ontogenetic language development; the dominance of talk is relatively fading and mutual-respect is bold. Therefore, the advocacy for the dynamic approach to conducting further research in this domain is decisively important. It is also crucial for more thorough and deep analysis on the genetic language development of speakers such as their social backgrounds and study or learning experiences. This paper draws merely a minor part of a larger research project conducted in Aceh and is expected to be a trigger for future studies.

Zing Zing Bang Bang:How Do You Know What She Really Meant. Gender Bias in Response to Irony: The Role of Who is Speaking to Whom

AbstractLiterature points towards the role of context in irony interpretation and the existence of gender differences in language use. We decided to examine the influence of interlocutors’ gender stereotypes on interpreting and reacting to ironic criticism in conversation. To this end, we designed two experiments gathering participants’ responses to the same ironic utterances voiced both by women and by men in control and gender stereotype activation conditions. Results of the first experiment showed that women tended to use irony significantly more often when responding to a man than to another woman. The second, ongoing experiment will additionally examine participants’ response times and total time of utterance in respect to their addressee’s gender. The results are discussed with regard to the social comparison theory (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987) and the linguistic intergroup bias theory (Wigboldus & Douglas, 2007).

Clarkson jest kobietą, czyli o problematyce płci kulturowej w języku na przykładzie wywiadów przeprowadzonych w brytyjskim programie motoryzacyjnym Top Gear

The present article investigates the issue of gender differences in language use. We look at some essential notions indispensable in the analysis of language use such as context. We also present some of the ideas and theories related to the question whether there are systematic differences in the ways men and women use language introduced by scholars working within the frame of gender studies and sociolinguistics. The aforementioned ideas are integrated into our analysis of the linguistic material that comes from a popular motoring show Top Gear .

Language and Gender

The research will be focusing on gender language differences. It shows the differences on different texts samples. This research includes an analysis of particular data to determine gender language difference. It reveals how men use language to show their authorities whereas women to show their support for men. ——————————  —————————— language differences can be shown and dis- cussed in the articles of Gender Differences in Language Use:An Analysis of 14,000 Text Samples and Gender differ- ences in the language of Hemingway's fiction. The articles attached pictures the difference between women and men in relating to aspects of language. It creates an understanding into the different aspects involved in lan- guage for the two gender considerations. The report develops the material on these lines and considers conceptualized re- search questions that it uses to analyze the articles and data provided as it reveals the learning of the writers from the arti- cle contents. 2 A study of difference in lan- guage Based on the topic of discussion, one would ask a number of questions on how men and women treat language. According to Gender Differences in Language Use:An Analysis of 14,000 Text Samples a number of items in theoretical form create a picture of the different experiments conducted based on their results on the convergence of the language relationship between the female and male gender. Separate studies conducted earlier and the discoveries held with over 14000 text files indicated the material necessary for helping one understand the different language aspects in rela- tion to gender differences. According to these items, men re- late their language more to objects and impersonal items while women consider aspects that are more psychological and the social items in their languages. Through these studies, one learns that gender difference exists more in situations that place fewer limitation on aspects requiring fewer language aspects. The analysis of this data reveals how the two genders

A word-count approach to analyze linguistic patterns in the reflective writings of medical students

BackgroundTeaching reflection and administering reflective writing assignments to students are widely practiced and discussed in medical education and health professional education. However, little is known about how medical students use language to construct their narratives. Exploring students’ linguistic patterns in their reflective writings can facilitate understanding the scope and facets of their reflections and their representational or communication approaches to share their experiences. Moreover, research findings regarding gender differences in language use are inconsistent. Therefore, we attempted to examine how females and males differ in their use of words in reflective writing within our research circumstance to detect the unique and gender-specific approaches to learning and their applications.MethodsWe analyzed the linguistic profiles of psychological process categories in the reflective writings of medical students and examined the difference in word usage between male and female medical students. During the first year of a clinical rotation, 60 fifth-year medical students wrote reflective narratives regarding pediatric patients and the psychosocial challenges faced by the patients and their family members. The narratives were analyzed using the Chinese version of Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (CLIWC), a text analysis software program. Multivariate procedures were applied for statistical analysis.ResultsCognitive words were most pervasive, averaging 22.16%, whereas perceptual words (2.86%) were least pervasive. Female students used more words related to positive emotions and sadness than did male students. The male students exceeded the female students only in the space category. The major limitation of this study is that CLIWC cannot directly acquire contextual text meanings; therefore, depending on the research topic, further qualitative study of the given texts might be necessary.ConclusionsTo enhance students’ empathy toward the psychosocial issues faced by patients and their family members, students should be encouraged to explore the domain of psychological processes by identifying and expressing their affective and perceptual experiences. Researchers in future studies should use outcome measures such as self-awareness or empathy to determine the overall effectiveness of reflective writing and how changes in linguistic patterns affect such outcomes.

Gender Differences in Vocabulary Use in Essay Writing by University Students

This study investigates gender differences in language use in argumentative essays written by male and female university students on designated topics under controlled conditions. Previous studies have usually focused on texts produced in uncontrolled conditions. Therefore, we cannot deny the possibility that other factors than gender may have affected the results. The results of the study presented here indicate that there are indeed gender differences in language use in essay writing, suggesting that male students tend to use more nouns related to social economic activities to convey information or facts about the given topics, whereas female students tend to use more pronouns, more intensifiers and modifiers, and words related to psychological cognitive processes so that they might convey their feelings and develop a good relationship with other people.