Gender and Politeness in an Academic Context - Research Paper Example

? Gender And Politeness In An Academic Context Assignment Introduction Politeness is a term defined culturally to mean the application of etiquette practically. With regard to the terms politeness and gender: gender is defined as the roles and responsibilities that are socially and culturally assigned because of either being male or female in a given society through socialization. Both genders have different ways of expressing themselves depending on the context therein. The notion of linguistic aspects of politeness simply connotes that there are two main ways linguistic politeness is shown, first, in lexicon form for example the use of words depending on the environment one is in like between a formal and informal gathering and in morphological form. There are several ways in which members of a particular gender express themselves politely. Globally, there are various ways of expressing oneself be it with his/her peers or the elderly, or the use jargon depending on the context, the consideration of all these elements boils down to the varied linguistic expressions of politeness by both males and females Linguistics is the study of language. Language is the total whole of meanings and sound. It is the mode of communication between genders and thus for there to be a sense of politeness in an academic context, the following must be addressed. The context of a school setting is that of a teacher, student and other non teaching staff and due to the different backgrounds students have, the expression of politeness varies between the male and female students Literature review According to (Wehmeier, 2000) politeness are defined as having respect and good manners in consideration of the feelings of others. The theory of linguistic politeness by Brown and Levinson holds that the individuals face is interpreted as self image seen publicly. (Grundy, 2008) notes that the faces of human beings are properties comparable to self esteem. (Kitamura, 2000) notes that the face notion is classified into two, that is the positive and the negative. On one hand, the positive face represents the similarities that exist between people interacting and appreciate each other’s self image while on the other hand; the negative face represents the desire to be unrestricted. These theorists argue that interact ants mutually aim to maintain each other’s face. (Holmes, 2006) notes that ideally, one can never know what people are feeling or thinking in a conversation, thus try to construe what is conveyed to them through communication For the sake of harmony in a given society, politeness strategy is essential and thus employed in conversations. This is so as (Bowe & Martin, 2007) note that face can be maintained, lost, enhanced and monitored during interactions. According to (Bowe & Martin, 2009) citing Brown and Levinson, the face is threatened by inappropriate behavior or acts. (Holmes, 2006) points out that this situation is assessed through three operational defined factors: the social distance (D) between partners, the ranking of the imposition (R) shared in the word of the appropriate culture and the power (P) of the addressee over the speaker. The seriousness of these acts therefore can be easily measured and assessed. With regard to gender, it argues that women are linguistically more polite than the men. The use of minimal responses like yeah and mhm demonstrates active participation, agreement and therefore used by both sexes. The use of questions for men, normally, it is genuine while for women it’s more of a rhetoric question and therefore use it more for conversation’s sake, with regard to writing, both use it as a literacy tool. In conversation, meaning is determined by the person listening depending on his/her concerns, focus and habits rather than the will intended for. Women seem to attach more weight to the significance of listening rather than men. The use of verbal aggressiveness is used more so by women and physical aggression is used more by men. The issue of self disclosure is whereby people open up to each. This is more common in women rather than men. Moreover, men are able to conveniently change the topic of discussion easily rather than women. This is because women take turns when communicating and therefore the topic is discussed broadly as opposed to men. The purpose of this study is to examine the speech practices associated with gender in schools. This investigation intends to generate information vital in efforts to improve on student’s impolite communication to their seniors. In addition, this research will bring to light the differences between genders and help further understand the social and biological reasons as to why they respond to the way they do. Methodology This chapter seeks to explain the description of the study site, the research design, sampling universe, method of data collection and analysis. The methodology used to extract data from the respondent was in the form of a self administered questionnaire. The data was collected on an intentional basis, from 21 participants aged between 20-28. The multilingual students comprising of 8 females and 9 males studying at the University of North Carolina department of the interlink language center. The remaining four students, study at the Winston Salem State University. The questionnaire is adapted from a previous study conducted by (Bacha, Bahous and Diab, 2012). It is made up of two sections; the first using the like red scale of 1-4 which requires respondents to show most to least polite behaviors. The second section requires respondents to answer to five sub sections designed politely to check on the consistency of the previous section. Moreover, the qualitative method of data collection and analysis was used. The researcher will use descriptive statistics and present it using simple frequencies and percentages by use of tables. The data will be edited, coded, verified for accuracy and completeness of recording. The data will be used to back the objectives in the research Data analysis and Presentation The data collected from the use of questionnaires was analyzed to help understand research topic and in achieving the research objective. Statement Female out of 12 frequency percentage Male out of 9 frequency percentage You come in late and walk silently to your seat 10 0.83 83 5 0.556 56 You sit quietly in your seat and then talk to your friend 10 0.83 83 5 0.556 56 The teacher looks at you and you keep talking 12 1 100 9 1 100 Then you ask the teacher what are we doing today 8 0.67 67 8 0.89 88 The teacher does not answer you 10 0.83 83 4 0.44 44 Then a student calls out that you are disturbing the class 12 1 100 5 0.56 56 You focus on what the teacher is explaining 8 0.89 89 8 0,67 67 The teacher asks the class a question and you raise your hand 8 0.67 67 8 0.89 89 A student calls out the answer 9 0.75 75 3 0.33 33 The teacher asks the student to raise his/her hand 11 0.92 92 6 0.67 67 83.3 percent of the women slightly agreed to question one while 55.6 percent agreed to the same. To the second question, 55.6 percent of the men and 83.3 percent of women disagreed with that attitude. The third question, both genders 100percent disagreed on the attitudes of the students. In addition, 66.7 percent of women and 88.9 percent of the men disagreed with the students attitude. The fifth question, 83.3 percent of women and 44.4 percent of men strongly agreed with the students attitudes. 100 percent of women and 55.6 percent of women disagreed with their attitudes on question six. 88.9 percent of women and 66.7 percent of men strongly agreed with their attitudes on question seven. 66.7 percent of women and 88.9 percent of men strongly agreed on question eight. On question 9, 75 percent of women and 33 percent of men strongly agreed. Finally, 91.7 percent of women and 66.7 percent of men strongly agreed with their attitude. Statement You tell the student to stop calling out the answer 10 0.83 83 5 0.56 56 A few of the students start talking among themselves 9 0.75 75 6 0.67 67 The teacher asks the students to leave the class 11 0.92 92 7 0.78 78 The teacher lectures the students on paying attention 11 0.92 92 8 0.89 89 One student tells the teacher to continue the class lecture 9 0.75 75 7 0.78 78 The teacher continues the lecturer 10 0.83 83 8 0.89 89 There is a lot of talking in the class 12 1 100 8 0.89 89 The teacher continues the lecture 11 0.92 93 7 0.78 78 With regard to question 11, 83.3 percent of women and 55.6 percent of men disagreed on their attitude. On question 12, 75 percent of the women and 66.7 percent of men disagreed on their attitudes. Question 13, 91.7 percent of women and 77.8 percent of men strongly agree with their attitudes. With reference to question 14, 91.7 percent of women and 88.9 percent of men strongly agree with the students attitudes. Further, 75 percent of women and 77.8 percent of men slightly agree. Question 16, 83.3 percent of women and 88.9 percent of men strongly agree. 100 percent of women and 88.9 percent of men strongly disagree on question 17 and finally, 91.7 percent of women and 77.8 percent of men strongly agree. Statement The teacher asks the talkative students to meet with him/her alone 11 0.92 92 6 0.67 67 The teacher dismisses the class giving them assignment 11 0.92 92 8 0.89 89 The late student in No. 1 apologizes privately for being late 11 0.92 92 5 0.56 56 A student tells the teacher that she/he should be stricter 10 0.83 83 8 0.89 89 The teacher answers that this is not the students business 10 0.83 83 9 1 100 A few students complain to the teacher about the other students 10 0.83 83 8 0.89 89 The teacher listens attentively and says she/he will investigate. 10 0.83 83 8 0.89 89 With regard to question 19, 91.7 percent of women and 66.7 percent of men strongly agree while on question 20, 91.7 percent of women and 88.9 percent of men strongly agree. On question 21, 91.7 percent of women and 55.6 percent of men strongly agree.83.3 percent of women and 88.9 percent of men slightly agree on question 22. Question 23 holds that 83.3 percent of women and 100 percent of men strongly agree. With reference to question 24, women hold 83.3 percent while men hold 88.9 percent disagreeing and finally, 83.3 percent of women and 88.9 percent of men strongly support this. Comparison with The Reviewed Literature With reference to the reviewed literature, women are bound to listen attentively than their male counterparts as according to this result, it’s important. Furthermore, it was easy for the male students to change their discussions and that explains why more men were in support of the student walking in late and then talk to a friend. In addition, the student was quick to try and change the topic from an advanced stage of discussion of the basic question when he asked a question. Moreover, the ability to be aggressive verbally is more likely in women as they recorded a higher percentage than men. This is demonstrated when a student announces of being disturbed by the misbehavior of a fellow classmate. As also noted, according to the given data, women are likely to disclose themselves more easily than men as demonstrated in the above findings. Conclusion In brief, with more freedom, come more responsibilities. The freedom of speech, has given individuals with the opportunity to express freely, their views, thoughts and therefore, caution must be put in place to ensure that even with the freedom, both genders are careful to not hurt one another, as the saying goes, people ever did but will forget how you made them feel. There is a need to create awareness of the society in order to make this world a better place by educating individuals on the issue of politeness. References Beeching, K. (2002) Gender, Politeness and Pragmatic Particles in French. Amsterdam: JohnBenjamins Publishing Company Bowe, H & Martin K 2007, Communication across cultures: mutual understanding in a global world, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne. Grundy, P 2008, Doing pracmatics, Hodder Education, London. Holmes, J 2006, ‘Politeness strategies as linguistic variables’, Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, p. 684. Kitamura, N 2000, ‘Adapting Brown and Levinson’s ‘politeness’ theory to the analysis of casual conversation’, Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, p. 1. Mills, S. (2003). Gender and politeness. Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge Univ. Press. Wehmeier 2000, Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, Oxford University Press, New York. Read More