Deborah Tannen's Article How Male And Female Students Use Language Differently

Men and women are not made equal. At least this is what Deborah Tannen believes in her article “How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently.” Tannen is a professor at Georgetown University, and is often highly revered for her work in linguistics. The article is meant to show the differences in communication learned at an early age by boys and girls. However, in the article, Tannen shows lack of direction with thought and evidence that should be apparent in the work of someone on the collegiate level. Tannen attempts to use the credibility of sociologists and anthropologists to strengthen her argument. Janet Lever, Marjorie Harness Goodwin, and Donna Eder research the topic of conversation and debate in regards to how men and women’s

She returns to the topic of sexes and how that women no not prefer the smaller groups composed solely of women. This was due to the fact that the all the women were talking so much, that some of the women didn’t feel that they could contribute fairly. “This is particularly revealing because it highlights that the same person who can be “oppressed” into silence in one context can become the talkative “oppressor” in another” (Tannen 348). This is not only a poor choice of words, but is extremely offensive to any person that has been through honest forms of oppression. Putting the word in quotations does not take away from what she is implying. The fact that some people have a personality to be shy and be nervous to speak up in groups of many people talking, is being compared to the oppression of things like, women having their heads cut off from speaking up, as just one example. Oppression is something that effects many cultures and people every day, and is not something to be taken lightly as Tannen has done in her article. Tannen attempted to use child generalizations on adults, creating an argument that lacks true evidence and believability. Along with the use of a personal experiment that does not use enough scientific theory to be concluded as accurate, the article is left with a lack of direction and evidence. While her point of view is interesting, yet the focus on the language and cultural differences diminishes her original ideas. She manages to make women as a whole look very badly in the eyes of the reader and doesn’t fairly represent all aspects of classroom