Language and Gender at Workplace: Differences in Male and Female Speech among Teachers ofthe English Department in Tlemcen University

Abstract

One of the main concerns of sociolinguistic studies is to understand the way people speak in different social contexts and how these linguistic variations are influenced by a whole range of social factors such as social class, age, status, and gender etc. As far as these sociolinguistic variables are concerned, studying men and women speech has been the concern of sociolinguistic research since the mid- 1970s. A considerable part of these studies, mainly those of the essentialists as Lakoff (1975), focus their attention on the way both males and females construct their language. They argue that women language is inferior and incomplete they therefore should follow male’s language as it represents the norm. In contrast, some other works such as the ones of Tannen (1990, 1994a, 1994b) Cameron (1990) and Labov (1972), refer gender differences to men’s and women’s social positions in the society they live in. In their common view, males and females live in different worlds which make them having different cultures. Additionally, the gender stereotypes, that each society has developed, also affect men’s and women’s status, and systematically they also affect their language use and perception as well as their attitudes. The attitudes that are directly related to these stereotypes became parts of the society’s norms and as they always direct its members’ views. As a result, these gender differences and stereotypes constantly shape the communication between men and women in different social context, not least in workplace.