For this week’s Discussions & Reflections, you will focus on how everyday language use plays a role in the reproduction of gender order in society and how earlier approaches to the study of gender and language accounted for gendered language use. Taking the questions below as your reference point you will synthesize and analyze the main arguments presented in the module materials to explore the relationship between language, gender, and social order.
Instructions
Please use the discussion forum to address the questions below, posting and replying as needed. You need to write 3-5 paragraphs to respond to the questions fully.
How does everyday language use contribute to the (re)production of gender hierarchy? Explain the main arguments Bodine (1975), Ochs and Taylor (2001), Shultz (1975), and Hines (1994) make in their studies. How do they account for the relationship between daily linguistic practices and gender order? Do you agree with their arguments? Reflect on your own language use and experiences (using pronouns (especially singular and plural “they”), dinner table conversations, attributes you use with your friends and beloved ones such as “dude”, “sweetheart”, “honey” etc.) Use specific examples from their works and your own experiences of linguistic practices to support your position.
How would you situate these studies within the earlier approaches to the study of language and gender? Do the findings in these studies support the dominance approach or the cultural difference approach? Explain how.
Finally, conclude with your overall observations on the relationship between everyday language use and gender hierarchy or gender order.
Step 2:
Reply to at least one classmate’s post. Your reply should be 5-7 sentences long. Be sure to add a new idea or question to the conversation. Do not just agree with, superficially compliment, or repeat points already made. Instead, clarify, refine, disagree with, ask questions, expand on, explain, or bring new evidence to bear on the topic at hand.
Writing Guidelines
Please see the Discussion and Reflections Guidelines and Rubric for detailed instructions. The discussion posts are not quickshare reflections. They are more like scholarly papers that you share with fellow students. You are expected to post a well-organized scholarly essay (3-5 paragraphs) with a thesis statement (well developed main idea/argument), justification paragraphs (examples, evidence, quotes that support your thesis) where you analyze relevant examples showing your engagement with the course materials and a conclusion. You need to provide proper in-text citations and full bibliographic information for the sources used in your essays.
Your initial post should take the form of a scholarly essay (3-5 paragraphs). This means that while you are responding to a prompt or questions that I give you, the writing itself could stand alone and still make sense. If you were to ask a complete stranger not in this class to read your work, would they be able to follow what you’re writing about? In other words, I am NOT looking for a list of answers to questions. Rather, I am looking for full paragraphs with topic sentences and ideas that are developed with examples. I recommend that you write your paragraphs in Microsoft Word and run spell check first, then copy and paste the paragraphs into d2l discussions.
You will then reply to at least one classmate (in discussion threads you did not create). Your reply should be 5-7 sentences long. Be sure to bring new insights, a new idea, or a question to the conversation. Do not just agree with, superficially compliment, or repeat points already made. Instead, clarify, refine, disagree with, ask questions, expand on, explain, or bring new insights and evidence to bear on the topic at hand.
Format: Use default font and size in d2l discussion, single space. DO NOT INCLUDE your name and date in the upper left-hand corner. Use the Chicago Manual of Style Author-Date for in-text citation. Include a list of references.
How you will be graded
Please see the rubric in Discussion and Reflections Guidelines and Rubric
To get started
Click on Discussion and Reflection 3, scroll down and then click on “Start a New Thread”.
