Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Anglistisches Seminar

EPG II: ,,Men Talk, Women Talk"

09.08.07, SS 2007

Who′s got the floor?

Gender differences in classroom talk

von

Julia Lingenfelser

Contents

1. Introduction 3

2. Main part 4

2.1 French & French (1984): "Gender imbalances in the primary classroom". 4

2.2 Swann (1988): "Talk Control: An Illustration from the Classroom of

Problems in Analysing Male Dominance of Conversation" 5

3. Conclusion 7

4. Bibliography 9

2

1. Introduction

The classroom is the place where children spent much of their time and where

they interact with peers. It is often observable, that, especially in primary school

classes, pupils are segregated by gender or build groups consisting of either

boys or girls.

"In the school context, gender is hugely salient. It becomes `a highly visible

source of individual and social identity, clearly marked by dress and language;

everyone is either female or male′."1

Thus, at school pupils do not only expand their knowledge of the subjects

taught, but also learn gender-appropriate behaviour, social roles and in the

course of that also acquire folklinguistic beliefs.

Schools, according to Delamont, "develop and reinforce sex segregations,

stereotypes and even discriminations which exaggerate the negative aspects of

the sex roles in the outside world, when they could be trying to alleviate them".2

She claims, in other words, that the school system plays a significant role in

creating and maintaining gender differences.

Is this true? Do schools perpetuate behavioural differences between males and

females? Does classroom interaction reflect gender divisions in society and are

social inequalities in the adult world a consequence of those years spent at

school?

The aim of this paper is to point out that there is a certain tendency concerning

gender differences in the classroom with a particular group being far more

talkative and generally treated preferentially by the teacher. The emphasis will

not only lie on the analysis of statistics and data, but a further concern will be

the attempt to find out what can be concluded from existing research and to

give a short outlook on prospective change and constancies.

In the following, the main findings of recent research concerning gender

imbalances in classroom talk will be presented on the basis of two

comprehensive British studies on gender inequalities: Jane and Peter French′s

1 Jennifer Coates,

Men, Women and Language

, 11.2.

2 Sara Delamont,

Sex Roles and the

School, p.2.

3