Abstract
This paper discusses an observation done at Valley Vista Elementary School in the Chula Vista school district. The observation was done in a fifth grade class. The observation was conducted in order to determine whether conversational styles are gender related. The culture composition and language discourse in the class was examined in order to provide information and conclusions related to gender related conversational styles.
Language Use Field Observation: Gender Related Conversational Styles
Gender plays an important role in society. Since the beginning of mankind women and men have had conflicting conversational styles and to describe this difference the old saying goes, “women are form Venus and men are form Mars”. It is evident that men and women are different and react and communicate in different ways. I have had the opportunity to observe a fifth grade classroom at Valley Vista Elementary school to note gender related conversational styles among students. I examined language discourse used between both genders that included the use of tag questions, the difference of choices in vocabulary such as slang/profanity, and use of intensifiers. The observation revealed many interesting differences between both male and females at the elementary school level.
The fifth grade classroom I observed had thirty-one students with 16 boys and 15 girls. The classroom was very diverse. The majority of the class was Hispanic but there were also students from other cultures such as Filipino, Vietnamese, Indian, Caucasian and Muslim. Five out of the thirty-one students are labeled as English language learners and receive extra help with the English language from an English language development teacher three times a week. One student has speech impairments and attends speech classes with the school speech therapist twice a week for stuttering. I was in the classroom for a total of two hours and due to the nature of the lesson I was able to...