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Resources Suggestions for Essay Questions Click on the bar below to jump to each question or scroll to the bottom to download this page.
Essay Question 1 The notion of 'gender differences', strong in the pre-feminist work of Jespersen, Trudgill and Labov, was maintained and indeed perpetuated by feminist analyses of mixed-sex talk in the 1970s. Consider and make notes on how Deborah Cameron, Mary Bucholtz and Cynthia Nelson have each challenged the notion of 'gender differences'. (Read Extension Units B1-4 as preparation for this topic.) Essay Question 2 Three aspects of Lakoff's (1975) work which have been questioned are her acceptance of the 'generic' he, her use of introspection as a methodology, and her apparent use of a 'deficit model' of women's talk. What (different) objections have been levelled at these? How does Lakoff address the critiques in the new edition (2004) of Language and Woman's Place? Essay Question 3 Read and note down your thoughts about the following claim, formulated by the author: "It is unproductive to set the '(cultural) difference' and 'dominance' approaches against each other when analysing mixed-sex talk, or even when comparing these two approaches, since, despite what they have in common (i.e. they are both about 'gender differences' across women and men rather than, say, similarities) they are essentially about different things. 'Difference' is largely about origin; 'dominance' is about effect. Neither is really about conscious 'intent' (though 'difference' is about lack of intent to dominate). A finding that, say, in a mixed-sex group, men tend to interrupt women more than the reverse, may have its origin in same-sex childhood socialisation practices ('(cultural) difference'), but may have the effect of silencing women ('(male) dominance')." Essay Question 4 Compare the notions of 'speech community', 'discourse community' and 'Community of practices'. What are the commonalities and what distinguishes them?
Essay Question 5 In what ways is a feminist approach to language analysis compatible with (a) discourse analysis, (b) post-structuralist approaches to gender and language study? Start by reading the chapter below, and follow up some of the references in Rosalind Gill's Bibliography.
Essay Question 6 Quantitative approaches associated with dichotomous approaches to gender and language study (men do this, women do that) have given way to an extent to more qualitative, often smaller-scale approaches. To what extent do you think the earlier quantitative studies made possible (laid the ground for) the later, qualitative ones? |
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