Conversation between the sexes: Deborah Tannen

A detailed Summary of Conversation between the sexes: Deborah Tannen

In my opinion both styles of communication have positive and negative aspects. It only gets problematic if men decode women's conversational style according to their rules and if women look at men's way to communicate from their point of view. This leads to striking misunderstandings between the sexes and to wrong interpretations of what has been said. "If women speak and hear a language of connection and intimacy, while men speak and hear a language of status and independence, then communication between men and women can be like cross-cultural communication, prey to a clash of conversational styles" (Tannen, 1992, p. ).Basically, men pursue a style of conversational interaction based on power, while women pursue a style based on solidarity and support.

female communication obeys other rules than male communication, and men and women therefore have other expectations of a conversation. The sexes differ in their opinions of what constitutes a good conversation, of how conversation should progress, of how important it is to let a current speaker finish his term and of how substantial it is to support the interlocutor actively. In the following passages I will concretely describe some means of communication which imply something dif

do not understand that what for them forms a natural part of conversation would make women feel rough and unfriendly. women are much more attuned to facilitating conversation than men. This conclusion and above explained descriptions of several conversational methods by the sexes confirm Deborah Tannen's thesis of the male orientation on competition and status and the female alignment with connection and consensus.

Another point says that men and women are active participants in conversation in the classroom because of the subject. English and history classes are conversationally dominated by women and math and science classes by men, with a few exceptions. Both sexes feel more comfortable volunteering information because of the stereotype that men have a greater affinity for math and science and women to english and history.

ferent to men than to women and consequently are often interpreted differently depending on the sex.

reserve their independence by not feeling obliged to respond to the previous topic and claim their status by contributing as many of their own points of interest as possible to keep the conversation going as they wish. Women want to show that they are actively listening and support the person they are listening to. While their interlocutor speaks women often throw in short comments, nod and currentl

Some common words found in the essay are:
, Deborah Tannen's, Lakoff Thompkins, speak hear, current speaker finish, current speaker, speak hear language, pursue style, speaker finish, english history, women speak, hear language, conversation classroom, communication women, math science,

Approximate Word count = 899
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English