DISCOURSE

ANALYSIS

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Communication Skills

Body language= one of the most important conversation skills. Research indicates (1)
………..……………………………….. of communication is non-verbal. Body language can
communicate our (2) …………………………………………. and ……………………………. .
Examples of receptive body language: open posture, (4) ……………………………., (5) …..
…………………. Examples of non-receptive body language: (6)…………………………..,
little eye-contact, (7) ………………………………… .

Non-receptive body language often leads to (8) …………………………………… . First

impressions need to be (9) …………………………. and (10) ………………………… .

2. Listen to two teachers discussing their teaching experiences around the world in relation
to body language. As you listen, answer the following questions:

 What may smiling mean in Japan?

 What things do men do in Italy that the speaker found strange?
 What does the hand gesture the speaker refers to mean in Italy?
 How should you point to someone in India?
 How should you beckon someone in Korea?

3. Discussion points

In pairs, discuss the following questions and statements:

 Why do you think body language is important?

 How do you use body language in your daily life?
 How does body language help you to communicate?
 How does your native culture use body language? What kind of body language do
you use at school? What are some examples of body language that boys use? Women?
Boys? Girls? Children?
 What actions are threatening?
 What actions are friendly?
 What actions are not allowed?
 What "new" body language have you seen since coming to your new country? Did
those actions confuse you?
 How does eye contact differ from your native country to your new one?
 How can you misinterpret someone's body language?
 Do you try to use body language when you communicate in English?
 How aware are you of other people's eye contact with you? How aware are you of
your own eye contact with pe ople? How relevant is the situation or the person with
whom you are maintaining eye contact?
 Do you think that all cultures "speak" the same body language?
 How close to each other do people in your culture stand when they are having a
conversation?
 Do people in your culture normally touch each other when they speak?

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Jones, L. (2003) New Cambridge Advanced English. Cambridge, CUP.

Listening:

Listen to Dr. Glass talking about how to be a good conversationalist. What does she
say about:

a) How to be a good conversationalist?

b) How to keep a good conversation going?
c) How to end a conversation?

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5
Advanced and Upper-Intermediate Language in Use. Cambridge, CUP

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McCarthy, M. & O’Dell, F. (2002). Advanced English Vocabulary In Use. Cambridge, CUP.

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Teachers get lessons in body language
School teachers have been told to copy the gestures of their pupils in
a bid to get children to like them.

Teachers are taught to avoid "closed" signals, such as folded arms

or standing behind a desk
Photo: GEOFF PUGH

By Julie Henry, Education Correspondent

9:00PM GMT 13 Feb 2010
Teachers are having lessons in how to read children's body language and modify their own
to tackle bad behaviour in the classroom
.
Thousands have been trained to observe pupils' posture, gestures, mannerisms, facial
expressions, speech and tone, in order to establish their emotional state and help build trust
and rapport.

Staff are encouraged to copy a child's gestures, a technique called "matching or mirroring",
to give them a subconscious message that the teacher is sympathetic towards them.

If a child is talking with their left hand touching their chin, the teacher should stand and hold
their left hand to their chin, for instance. If the pupil tilts their head to the side, the teacher
should mirror them.

Staff should also cross their legs if a student does and while talking, make the same hand
gestures as the pupil used while they were speaking.

12 Feb 2010

Teachers are also taught to avoid "closed" signals, such as folded arms or standing behind
a desk.

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The training is part of set of exercises called neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) which is
designed to improve communication and patterns of behaviour.

More than 1,200 teachers in England have received training in NLP through the
Government's fast track teaching programme. Hundreds of schools and local authorities
also pay thousands of pounds for training by private consultants.

Supporters of the techniques claim they can improve behaviour in the classroom and
motivate children to learn.

Critics said, however, that NLP was a "bizarre mixture of pseudo science and new-age
thinking" and yet another educational fad that diverted teachers' attention away from good
teaching.

Frank Furedi, a sociology professor at Kent University and author of Wasted: Why
Education Isn't Educating, said: "Every few years there's the big idea that becomes the
dominant theme in education.

"We've had raising self-esteem, multiple intelligence, emotional literacy, wellbeing and
happiness, and the latest is NLP.

"They are gimmicks and are then replaced with the next big thing. What NLP is saying is
that teachers have to learn to take their cue from children, a complete reversal of the
relationship where pupils take their cue from the teacher.

"In an ideal world, there's a bit of both, but methods like teachers reading body language
are not only ineffectual in terms of educational outcomes, they also push teachers in a
direction that is almost inappropriate."

NLP was developed in the 1970s at the University of California. Its methods have been
employed in a variety of professions, including sales, marketing, management, counselling
and hypnotism.

In the UK, at least 50 companies and organisation now offer courses in NLP, many aimed
at teachers. Courses which certify the participant as an "NLP practitioner" can cost as much
as £5,000.

Despite its increasing use in mainstream education, its methods are controversial. Dr
Gareth Roderique-Davies of Glamorgan University described NLP as "cargo-cult
psychology".

"NLP masquerades as a legitimate form of psychotherapy, makes unsubstantiated claims

about how humans think and behave, purports to encourage research in a vain attempt to
gain credibility, yet fails to provide evidence that it actually works," he said.
Phil Beadle, a former Teacher of the Year and author of Could do Better, also cast doubt on
the programme.

"NLP is being given increasing credence in our schools," he said. "But it doesn't stand up to
analysis.

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"Playing a one-sided game during a two-way conversation is hardly a sound basis for trust.
Also, isn't mirroring someone's body language supposed to be a sign that you fancy them?
It seems an ill-advised classroom strategy."

But Dave Vizard, an NLP trainer and author of Meeting the Needs of Disaffected Students,
said schools had to find new solutions to poor behaviour in the classroom.

"Times have changed dramatically," he said. "The social context, family structures, the
multimedia that children are brought up with have led to a situation where authority figures
seem to have been disempowered.

"Matching body language and tonality means looking at the world through the young
persons eyes. The back drop is consistency and firm boundaries, which is the core of all
managing of behaviour."

At Harris Academy, in Peckham, nearly 30 teachers have received NLP training.

Ray Lau, the curriculum coordinator for performing arts and an NLP "master practitioner",
said: "We look at things like matching and mirroring, breathing patterns, mannerisms.
"For instance, if you have an upset, emotional pupil in front of you, the aim is to calm them
down. I would use an interruption strategy.

"Get them to look up, so they engage their visual cortex and get them to breath and move
forward. This helps to divert them from the emotional state they are in and become more
rational."

Mr Lau said the language used by teachers was also a critical part of NLP.
"Teachers get irate and frustrated with students but instead of having a go, NLP shows
there is a way of communication that can imply to pupils how they should behave,
impacting on their subconscious, without making a bald statement.
"Affirmation is also important."

Instead of ordering a child to sit down, for instance, a teacher could say 'When you're sitting
down and working, we can discuss it further, that would be good wouldn't it?'
"It has not only helped to improve behaviour but it has had a general impact on the learning
side," Mr Lau added.

[Link]
[Link]

Body language plays a key role, especially at the subconscious level, in

communication and an awareness of it and how it can vary from culture to
culture, can be particularly important in helping students to develop their ability
to understand in a real environment.

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 The features of body language
o Eye contact
o Facial expression
o Proximity
o Posture
o Gesture
 Why I teach body language
 How to teach body language
 Conclusion

The features of body language

Body language is made up of a whole range of features many of which we

combine together without ever thinking about what it is we are doing or what
we are expressing.

Eye contact can have a very significant influence when you are interacting with
them.

 It can play a key role in helping to establishing rapport and failing to

make eye contact in many cultures is associated with being dishonest or having
something to hide.

 Eye contact also plays an important role in turn taking during

conversation. Among a group of people, a speaker will often make eye contact
with the person he or she wants a response from. Someone who wants to enter
or interject in a conversation will catch the eye of the person speaking to
indicate that they want to interrupt, and equally someone who no longer wants
to listen will avoid eye contact.

 People who know each other well can communicate mutual understanding
with a single look.

 Eye contact is also a way of communicating attraction.

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 Facial expression is one of the most obvious and flexible forms of
communication and can easily convey mood, attitude, understanding, confusion
and a whole range of other things.

Proximity is a far less obvious form of body language but can be equally as
meaningful. It is also something that can easily be misinterpreted as it can vary
so much from culture to culture.

 Many British people require a lot of 'private space' and will often stand
much further away from people than other nationalities whilst talking to them.
They seldom touch each other whilst speaking.

 Breaking these invisible boundaries can either make them very

uncomfortable or signal attraction.

Posture can communicate a number of things.

 Your posture can convey a whole range of attitudes, from interest or the
lack of it, to degrees of respect or subordination.

 Speakers often use posture to punctuate what they are saying, shifting
forward in their seat or leaning in towards their interlocutor to punctuate an
important point, or slumping back to indicate that they have finished making a
point.

Gesture can be used to replace verbal communication.

 Different finger, thumb or hand gestures can convey a range of meanings

in different cultures, from insults to approval or even attraction.

 Many good speakers or storytellers use hand gestures to illustrate their

stories.

 It can also form part of punctuation with head nods and hand
movements, which relate to the stress, rhythm and tempo of their sentences.
Speakers who use their hands a lot often let them drop at the end of a
sentence. Heads often nod down when words in sentences are stressed.

 One of the most obvious and in many ways useful gestures is pointing.
"It's over there." "I want that one."

Why I teach body language

But if we use all these things subconsciously in our own language, so do we

really need to'teach' them in the classroom? For me the answer is yes. Although
we do use and interpret all these factors in our first language communications, I

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 believe that they aren't necessarily automatically transferable to the language
we are learning.

 Many students, especially when listening to a second language, focus so

heavily on hearing and understanding 'the words' people are saying that they
suffer from a form of cognitive overload. There is just too much incoming
information for them to process and they miss many of these subtler messages.

 When teachers deal with listening in class, this is most commonly done
with the use of recorded text on audio tape or CD, so these more visual factors
in the communication are neglected in our students' second language
development.

 Many of these traits of communication can have different meanings or be

interpreted in completely different ways in different cultures.

How to teach body language

So how can we deal with body language and help our students to interpret it.
For me one of the most useful mediums for this has been video and particularly
video without the sound. Whenever I use video clips in class with my students I
always play them through at least once without the sound on first.

There are a number of different tasks that I've used depending on the type of
clip being shown.

 It's often interesting to play the clip through and get students to
speculate about the relationships of the people in the scene.
o Who is emotionally closest or involved with which other characters?
o What's the relationship between characters?
o Who is feeling angry?
o What is each person feeling or thinking?

 You can also try to get students to predict what they think characters are
talking about or even what they are saying. If their level is low then they can
predict what kinds of things they would be saying in their mother tongue.

 If you have access to, or can transcribe the script for the clips you use,
you can get your students to try to act out the scene using the script before
they hear it. Just let them watch first and think about what the character they
have to play is likely to be thinking or feeling. This gets the students attempting
to interpret their body language and express it through the way they read the
script.

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 I've also found it interesting to do cultural comparisons using a scene
from the target culture with a similar scene on a video from their own culture.
Just choose something fairly straightforward, like a group of friends in a café or
restaurant and aks students to look for differences in the way they interact.
o Do they touch when they meet?
o How close do they sit when they talk?
o Do they touch whilst talking?
o Do they make eye contact?
o Do they openly express any emotions?

 If you can't find parallel clips, then you could just watch a clip from the target
culture and ask your students to think about how the scene would be different if it
were in their country.

 Getting students to view silently before they listen to a scene or video clip can
also help them to look for 'subtext'. It is often the case that things are being implied
which aren't stated in words. Getting students to focus on these factors can help to
raise their awareness of the non-verbal communication, which is happening.

 If you have time, try preparing two 'false' scripts for a scene. These can be slight
variations on the authentic one. Then give the three scripts to the students and get
them to watch the clip silently and deduce which of the scripts is the correct one.

 If you can't get access to video from the target culture then you can still use
clips from the students' mother culture. Things like politicians speaking or televised
debates where there are a number of people round a table discussing something can
be really useful. You can pause and get students to predict who will be speaking next,
or who is making a point.

Conclusion
I believe that whatever kind of silent viewing you do and whatever you choose to focus
on will ultimately help your students to understand when it comes to listening. They
will at least have developed a conceptual framework for what they need to understand
and will have built up some expectations of what they will hear. Listening should not be
an activity we do divorced from visual context. What we see is part of the
comprehension experience and body language forms a large part of how we
communicate our message, even if at times we are unaware of it. Comprehension of
body language may not help them when it comes to expressing themselves, but it's
surprising just how much you can understand without ever hearing a word. If you don't
believe me, why not try turning the volume off the next time you are watching TV.
You'll be surprised.

Further reading
Field J. 'Skills and Strategies: Towards a new Methodology for Listening' ELT Journal
Volume 52/2 April 1998
Willis J. 'The Role of the Visual Element in Spoken Discourse' ELT Documents 114.
(Paradigm)

Nik Peachey, trainer and materials writer, British Council

[Link]

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 Non-verbal communication (body language, paralinguistics) has been a focus of
attention for some time in areas such as the refinement of presentation skills,
developing social skills, and even as a realistic alternative to the lie-detector test.

Relatively little attention, however, has been given in language teaching to non-verbal
communication as a complement to spoken language, though recent trends in neuro
linguistic programming regarding mirroring and parallel body language have filtered
into current research and practice.

 Components of non-verbal communication

 Teaching non-verbal communication
 A non-verbal communication lesson
 Conclusions

Components of non-verbal communication

Since it is said that as little as ten percent of communication takes place verbally, and
that facial expressions, gestures and posture form part of our culture and language, it
seems reasonable that we should at least raise learners' awareness of non-verbal
communication in order to improve their use of natural language, increase confidence
and fluency and help to avoid inter-cultural misunderstandings.

On the grounds that; 'It's not what you say, it's the way that you say it', there is much
to be said for teaching non-verbal communication either parallel to, or integrated with,
a language and skills based syllabus, in the same way that phonology is often treated.

Non-verbal communication is a system consisting of a range of features often used

together to aid expression. The combination of these features is often a subconscious
choice made by native speakers or even sub-groups/sub-cultures within a language
group. The main components of the system are:

 Kinesics (body language) Body motions such as shrugs, foot tapping,

drumming fingers, eye movements such as winking, facial expressions, and gestures

 Proxemics (proximity) Use of space to signal privacy or attraction

 Haptics Touch

 Oculesics Eye contact

 Chronemics Use of time, waiting, pausing

 Olfactics Smell

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 Vocalics Tone of voice, timbre, volume, speed

 Sound symbols Grunting, mmm, er, ah, uh-huh, mumbling

 Silence Pausing, waiting, secrecy

 Posture Position of the body, stance

 Adornment Clothing, jewellery, hairstyle

 Locomotion Walking, running, staggering, limping

Of the above, body language (particularly facial expressions and gestures), eye
contact, proximity and posture are probably those which learners most need to be
aware of in terms of conveying meaning, avoiding misunderstandings and fitting in with
the target culture.
In terms of skills development, non-verbal clues should not be underestimated when
developing both the listening and speaking skills. Like grammatical structures, non-
verbal communication has form, function and meaning, all of which may vary from
language to language.

Teaching non-verbal communication

Relatively few techniques have been suggested for teaching non-verbal
communication, but some suggestions are:

 Learners discuss the meaning of gestures and expressions (either demonstrated

by the teacher, from pictures, or from existing published materials). This is particularly
effective with multilingual classes
 Learners mime adjectives of both physical and emotional feelings
 Learners watch a video clip without sound, discuss body language, relationships,
emotions and feelings, then write the dialogue
 Learners act out a dialogue using gesture and expression only
 Learners make up a dialogue based on mime
 Learners, in pairs, take turns in listening to each other for 30 seconds, using
only non-verbal responses.

A non-verbal communication lesson

Below I've described a sixty-minute lesson which was delivered by a trainee teacher on a
recent course at the Izmir University of Economics in Turkey. The lesson was planned by
the trainee, with advice and some materials provided by the course tutor. Her aims were to
raise learners' awareness of non-verbal communication, to present a variety of non-verbal
cues and to give the learners the opportunity to practise and produce some of these cues,
as well as to develop and integrate all four skills. The class comprised adult students at
good intermediate level.

The lesson consisted of six stages:

 A running dictation using a short text about non-verbal communication, the

instructions for which were given without speaking by gesture and mime.

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 A brief brainstorming activity to elicit and teach key terms.

Focus on gestures through cartoon pictures of different hand or facial gestures. Students
were asked to discuss the meanings in their own culture, were shown a variety of other
meanings in other cultures, and were invited to contribute other examples.

Practice using a scripted dialogue. Pairs of students rehearsed parts, then acted out the
dialogue using expressions, gestures and posture.

Students built dialogues based on silent viewing of a short video clip.

Students combined verbal and non-verbal communication in the context of a short extract
from a play.

Conclusions
On reflection, this may have been an overambitious lesson, attempting to take students
from an introduction to a concept with which they were unfamiliar to a full-blown
production stage.

Although the learners found the first three stages of the lesson both interesting and
entertaining, they found the practice activities progressively more difficult, though this may
have been due to the selection of materials. However, such immersion in the topic may be
the only way to fully expose intermediate students to a totally unfamiliar area.

There are a number of lessons to be learnt from the experience:

 Non-verbal communication needs to be taught in small chunks in appropriate

situations where the situational or thematic context lends itself to the language.

 Time needs to be devoted to confidence-building, creativity and other drama-based

activities which help learners to produce natural language and to use expressions and
gestures to reinforce meaning.

 Non-verbal communication, like phonology, should be taught from beginner level.

Crash courses in natural language production are unlikely to work. An awareness-raising
approach is appropriate.

 Gesture and expression, in particular, add an extra dimension to language, and

certainly add to the cultural component that verbal communication carries. An awareness
of non-verbal cues also helps to avoid some of the misunderstandings which are the
inevitable but annoying consequence of cultural interpretation of meaning.
Further reading
Darn S. Aspects of Non-verbal Communication The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XI, No. 2
Darn S, Ledbury R, White I. The Importance of Eye Contact in the Classroom The Internet
TESL Journal, Vol. X, No. 8
Feldman R. S.& Rime (Eds.) Fundamentals of Non-verbal Behavior CUP
Givens D. B The Non-verbal Dictionary of Gestures, Signs and Body Language
Cues[Link]
Field J. Skills and Strategies: Towards a new Methodology for Listening ELT Journal Vol.
52/2
Nolasco R. & Arthur L. Conversation (Activity 37) OUP (Good source of cartoons for
gestures)
Dilek Eryilmaz and Steve Darn, Izmir University of Economics, Turkey

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[Link]
Read the following text about body language. For each paragraph, choose the
corresponding topic.

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Read the text again and complete the grid below:

Spratt, M. & Taylor, L. (1998) The Cambridge CAE Course. Cambridge, CUP.

DISCOURSE MARKERS

Listen to two friends discussing their relationships with brothers and sisters during
childhood and later life. As you listen, complete the sentences below with an appropriate
word or short phrase. The first example has been done for you.

Dave has (1)………………………… who is about for years (2) …………………….. than him.
When they were children, Dave felt that he often ended up getting ……………………………
because of her. The biggest problems in their relationship occurred when they were (4)
……………………………………. . Dave thought his sister was rather (5) ………………….
and he took the side of his (6)…………………………………. . Eventually, Dave decided to
(7) ……………………………………. . Today Dave and his sister see (8) ……………………..
of each other and they (9) ………………………………. .

Celia has two sister and she is the (10) …………………………… of the three. As a child
she remembers feeling (11) ……………………………. Towards her (12) ………………….. ,
because they were so close in age. She was particularly (13) ………………………. to her
other sister who was five years (14) ……………………………….. . Nowadays, they enjoy a
very close relationship.

Listen again to the conversation and note down any short phrases the speakers use to:

 Express agreement
 Check the listener’s understanding
 Express surprise/shock
 Confirm their own understanding
 Seek further information/explanation

With a partner, discuss how your relationships with other children (e.g. brothers, sisters,
cousins, close friends) changed as you grew older. Try to use the phrases from the
previous exercise. Record your conversation and send the file to your trainer.

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GENDER AND COMMUNICATION. Male and female differences in verbal and non-
verbal behavior
[Link]
Watch the video and write down notes about the following topics:
1) What is the aim of this video?

2) Old rules for women and men. Provide at least TWO examples.

3) Words

 What is it said about the words esposa, old maid, spinter, bachelor?

 Sexist language

 Pronouns in German

 Japanese ‘move’. Hyperpolite speech.

4) Gender and advertising

5) What does the test on colour description reveal?

6) What is it said about hyper-masculine and hyper-feminine voices?

7) Interruption: How does it work?

8) Space, gender and proxemics. Rules about touch.

9) Active understanding

10) Tag questions

11) Transgender

12) Assertive-Non Assertive Acts

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What language barrier?
It is a truism that men and women do not communicate in the same way. But is there really
any evidence to support this Mars-and-Venus theory? Oxford language professor Deborah
Cameron investigates in the first of three extracts from her new book

Click here for the table on Gender differences in verbal/communicative behaviour adapted
from Hyde, 'The Gender Similarities Hypothesis'.

Do men and women speak the same language? Can they ever really
communicate? These questions are not new, but since the early 1990s there has been a new
surge of interest in them. Countless self-help and popular psychology books have been
written portraying men and women as alien beings, and conversation between them as a
catalogue of misunderstandings. The most successful exponents of this formula, such as
Deborah Tannen, author of You Just Don't Understand, and John Gray, author of Men Are
From Mars, Women Are From Venus, have topped the bestseller lists on both sides of the
Atlantic. Advice on how to bridge the communication gulf between the sexes has grown into
a flourishing multimedia industry. Gray's official website, for instance, promotes not only
his various Mars and Venus books, but also seminars, residential retreats, a telephone
helpline and a dating service.

Readers who prefer something a little harder-edged can turn to a genre of popular science
books with titles such as Brain Sex, Sex on the Brain, The Essential Difference, and Why
Men Don't Iron. These explain that the gulf between men and women is a product of nature,
not nurture. The sexes communicate differently (and women do it better) because of the
way their brains are wired. The female brain excels in verbal tasks whereas the male brain is
better adapted to visual-spatial and mathematical tasks. Women like to talk; men prefer
action to words.

Writers in this vein are fond of presenting themselves as latter-day Galileos, braving the
wrath of the political correctness lobby by daring to challenge the feminist orthodoxy that
denies that men and women are by nature profoundly different. Simon Baron-Cohen, the
author of The Essential Difference, explains in his introduction that he put the book aside
for several years because "the topic was just too politically sensitive". In the chapter on
male-female differences in his book about human nature, The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker
congratulates himself on having the courage to say what has long been "unsayable in polite
company". Both writers stress that they have no political axe to grind: they are simply
following the evidence where it leads, and trying to put scientific facts in place of politically
correct dogma.

Yet before we applaud, we should perhaps pause to ask ourselves: since when has silence
reigned about the differences between men and women? Certainly not since the early 1990s,
when the previous steady trickle of books began to develop into a raging torrent. By now, a
writer who announces that sex-differences are natural is not "saying the unsayable": he or
she is stating the obvious. The proposition that men and women communicate differently is
particularly uncontroversial, with cliches such as "men never listen" and "women find it
easier to talk about their feelings" referenced constantly in everything from women's
magazines to humorous greeting cards.

The idea that men and women "speak different languages" has itself become a dogma,
treated not as a hypothesis to be investigated or as a claim to be adjudicated, but as an

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unquestioned article of faith. Our faith in it is misplaced. Like the scientists I have
mentioned, I believe in following the evidence where it leads. But in this case, the evidence
does not lead where most people think it does. If we examine the findings of more than 30
years of research on language, communication and the sexes, we will discover that they tell
a different, and more complicated, story.

The idea that men and women differ fundamentally in the way they use language to
communicate is a myth in the everyday sense: a widespread but false belief. But it is also a
myth in the sense of being a story people tell in order to explain who they are, where they
have come from, and why they live as they do. Whether or not they are "true" in any
historical or scientific sense, such stories have consequences in the real world. They shape
our beliefs, and so influence our actions. The myth of Mars and Venus is no exception to
that rule.

For example, the workplace is a domain in which myths about language and the sexes can
have detrimental effects. A few years ago, the manager of a call centre in north-east England
was asked by an interviewer why women made up such a high proportion of the agents he
employed. Did men not apply for jobs in his centre? The manager replied that any vacancies
attracted numerous applicants of both sexes, but, he explained: "We are looking for people
who can chat to people, interact, build rapport. What we find is that women can do this
more ... women are naturally good at that sort of thing." Moments later, he admitted: "I
suppose we do, if we're honest, select women sometimes because they are women rather
than because of something they've particularly shown in the interview."

The growth of call centres is part of a larger trend in economically advanced societies. More
jobs are now in the service than the manufacturing sector, and service jobs, particularly
those that involve direct contact with customers, put a higher premium on language and
communication skills. Many employers share the call-centre manager's belief that women
are by nature better qualified than men for jobs of this kind, and one result is a form of
discrimination. Male job applicants have to prove that they possess the necessary skills,
whereas women are just assumed to possess them. In today's increasingly service-based
economy, this may not be good news for men.

But it is not only men who stand to lose because of the widespread conviction that women
have superior verbal skills. Someone else who thinks men and women are naturally suited
to different kinds of work is Baron-Cohen. In The Essential Difference he offers the
following "scientific" careers advice: "People with the female brain make the most
wonderful counsellors, primary school teachers, nurses, carers, therapists, social workers,
mediators, group facilitators or personnel staff ... People with the male brain make the most
wonderful scientists, engineers, mechanics, technicians, musicians, architects, electricians,
plumbers, taxonomists, catalogists, bankers, toolmakers, programmers or even lawyers."

The difference between the two lists reflects what Baron-Cohen takes to be the "essential
difference" between male and female brains. The female-brain jobs make use of a capacity
for empathy and communication, whereas the male ones exploit the ability to analyse
complex systems. Baron-Cohen is careful to talk about -"people with the female/male brain"
rather than "men and women". He stresses that there are men with female brains, women
with male brains, and individuals of both sexes with "balanced" brains. He refers to the
major brain types as "male" and "female", however, because the tendency is for males to
have male brains and females to have female brains. And at many points it becomes clear

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that in spite of his caveats about not confusing gender with brain sex, he himself is doing
exactly that.

The passage reproduced above is a good example. Baron-Cohen classifies nursing as a

female-brain, empathy-based job (though if a caring and empathetic nurse cannot measure
dosages accurately and make systematic clinical observations she or he risks doing serious
harm) and law as a male-brain, system-analysing job (though a lawyer, however well versed
in the law, will not get far without communication and people-reading skills). These
categorisations are not based on a dispassionate analysis of the demands made by the two
jobs. They are based on the everyday common-sense knowledge that most nurses are
women and most lawyers are men.

If you read the two lists in their entirety, it is hard not to be struck by another "essential
difference": the male jobs are more varied, more creative, and better rewarded than their
female counterparts. Baron-Cohen's job-lists take me back to my schooldays 35 years ago,
when the aptitude tests we had to complete before being interviewed by a careers adviser
were printed on pink or blue paper. In those days we called this sexism, not science.

At its most basic, what I am calling "the myth of Mars and Venus" is simply the proposition
that men and women differ fundamentally in the way they use language to communicate.
All versions of the myth share this basic premise; most versions, in addition, make some or
all of the following claims:

1 Language and communication matter more to women than to men; women talk more than
men.

2 Women are more verbally skilled than men.

3 Men's goals in using language tend to be about getting things done, whereas women's
tend to be about making connections to other people. Men talk more about things and facts,
whereas women talk more about people, relationships and feelings.

4 Men's way of using language is competitive, reflecting their general interest in acquiring
and maintaining status; women's use of language is cooperative, reflecting their preference
for equality and harmony.

5 These differences routinely lead to "miscommunication" between the sexes, with each sex
misinterpreting the other's intentions. This causes problems in contexts where men and
women regularly interact, and especially in heterosexual relationships.

The literature of Mars and Venus, in both the self-help and popular science genres, is
remarkably patronising towards men. They come off as bullies, petulant toddlers; or
Neanderthals sulking in their caves. One (male) contributor to this catalogue of stereotypes
goes so far as to call his book If Men Could Talk. A book called If Women Could Think
would be instantly denounced; why do men put up with books that put them on a par with
Lassie or Skippy the Bush Kangaroo ("Hey, wait a minute - I think he's trying to tell us
something!")?

Perhaps men have realised that a reputation for incompetence can sometimes work to your
advantage. Like the idea that they are no good at housework, the idea that men are no good

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at talking serves to exempt them from doing something that many would rather leave to
women anyway. (Though it is only some kinds of talking that men would rather leave to
women: in many contexts men have no difficulty expressing themselves - indeed, they tend
to dominate the conversation.)

This should remind us that the relationship between the sexes is not only about difference,
but also about power. The long-standing expectation that women will serve and care for
others is not unrelated to their position as the "second sex". But in the universe of Mars and
Venus, the fact that we (still) live in a male-dominated society is like an elephant in the
room that everyone pretends not to notice.

My father, like many men of his generation, held the belief that women were incompetent
drivers. During my teenage years, family car journeys were invariably accompanied by an
endless running commentary on how badly the women around us were driving. Eventually I
became so irritated by this, I took to scouring passing traffic for counter-examples: women
who were driving perfectly well, and men who were driving like idiots.

My father usually conceded that the men were idiots, but not because they were men.
Whereas female idiocy was axiomatically caused by femaleness, substandard male drivers
were either "yobbos" - people with no consideration for others on the road or anywhere else
- or "Sunday drivers": older men whose driving skills were poor because they used their cars
only at weekends. As for the women who drove unremarkably, my father seemed surprised
when I pointed them out. It was as if he had literally not noticed them until that moment.

At the time I thought my father was exceptional in his ability to make reality fit his
preconceptions, but now I know he was not. Psychologists have found in experimental
studies that when interpreting situations people typically pay most attention to things that
match their expectations, and often fail to register counter-examples.

It is not hard to see how these tendencies might lead readers of Mars and Venus books to
"recognise" generalisations about the way men and women use language, provided those
generalisations fit with already familiar stereotypes. An anecdote illustrating the point that,
say, men are competitive and women cooperative conversationalists will prompt readers to
recall the many occasions on which they have observed men competing and women
cooperating - while not recalling the occasions, perhaps equally numerous, on which they
have observed the opposite. If counter-examples do come to mind ("What about Janet?
She's the most competitive person I know"), it is open to readers to apply the classic strategy
of putting them in a separate category of exceptions ("of course, she grew up with three
brothers / is the only woman in her department / works in a particularly competitive
business").

In relation to men and women, our most basic stereotypical expectation is simply that they
will be different rather than the same. We actively look for differences, and seek out sources
that discuss them. Most research studies investigating the behaviour of men and women are
designed around the question: is there a difference? And the presumption is usually that
there will be. If a study finds a significant difference between male and female subjects, that
is considered to be a "positive" finding, and has a good chance of being published. A study
that finds no significant differences is less likely to be published.

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Most people, of course, do not read academic journals: they get their information about
scientific research findings from the reports that appear in newspapers, or from TV science
documentaries. These sources often feature research on male-female differences, since
media producers know that there is interest in the subject. But the criteria producers use
when deciding which studies to report and how to present them introduce another layer of
distortion. And sometimes headlines trumpet so-called facts that turn out, on investigation,
to have no basis in evidence at all.

In 2006, for instance, a popular science book called The Female Brain claimed that women
on average utter 20,000 words a day, while men on average utter only 7,000. This was
perfect material for soundbite science - it confirmed the popular belief that women are not
only the more talkative sex but three times as much - and was reported in newspapers
around the world.

One person who found it impossible to believe was Mark Liberman, a professor of phonetics
who has worked extensively with recorded speech. His scepticism prompted him to delve
into the footnotes of The Female Brain to find out where the author had got her figures.
What he found was not an academic citation but a reference to a self-help book. Following
the trail into the thickets of popular literature, Liberman came across several competing
statistical claims. The figures varied wildly: different authors (and sometimes even the same
author in different books) gave average female daily word-counts ranging from 4,000 to
25,000 words. As far as Liberman could tell, all these numbers were plucked from thin air:
in no case did anyone cite any actual research to back them up. He concluded that no one
had ever done a study counting the words produced by a sample of men and women in the
course of a single day. The claims were so variable because they were pure guesswork.

After Liberman pointed this out in a newspaper article, the author of The Female Brain
conceded that her claim was not supported by evidence and said it would be deleted from
future editions. But the damage was already done: the much-publicised soundbite that
women talk three times as much as men will linger in people's memories and get recycled in
their conversations, whereas the little-publicised retraction will make no such impression.
This is how myths acquire the status of facts.

Do women and men really speak so differently?

In 2005, an article appeared in the journal American Psychologist with the title
The Gender Similarities Hypothesis. This title stood out as unusual, because, as we have
seen, the aim of most research studies is to find differences rather than similarities between
men and women. Yet, as the article's author Janet S Hyde pointed out, on closer inspection,
the results of these studies very often show more similarity than difference.

Hyde is a psychologist who specialises in "meta-analysis", a statistical technique that allows

the analyst to collate many different research findings and draw overall conclusions from
them. Scientists believe that one study on its own does not show anything: results are only
considered reliable if a number of different studies have replicated them. Suppose that the
question is: who interrupts more, men or women? Some studies will have found that men
interrupt more, others that women do, and others may have found no significant difference.
In some studies the reported gender difference will be large, while in others it will be much
smaller. The number of people whose behaviour was investigated will also vary from study
to study. Meta-analysis enables you to aggregate the various results, controlling for things

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that make them difficult to compare directly, and calculate the overall effect of gender on
interruption.

Hyde used this technique to review a large number of studies concerned with all kinds of
putative male-female differences. In Table 1, I have extracted the results for just those
studies that dealt with gender differences in linguistic and communicative behaviour.

To read this table you need to know that "d" is the formula indicating the size of the overall
gender difference: minus values for "d" indicate that females are ahead of males, whereas
plus values indicate that males are ahead of females.

Click here for the table on Gender differences in verbal/communicative behaviour adapted
from Hyde, 'The Gender Similarities Hypothesis'.

So, for instance, the table tells us that when the findings of different studies are aggregated,
the overall conclusion is that men interrupt more than women and women self-disclose
more than men. However, the really interesting information is in the last column, which
tells us whether the actual figure given for d indicates an effect that is very large, large,
moderate, small, or close to zero. In almost every case, the overall difference made by
gender is either small or close to zero. Two items, spelling accuracy and frequency of
smiling, show a larger effect - but it is still only moderate.

There were a few areas in which Hyde did find that the effect of gender was large or very
large. For instance, studies of aggression and of how far people can throw things have
shown a considerable gap between the sexes (men are more aggressive and can throw
further). But in studies of verbal abilities and behaviour, the differences were slight. This is
not a new observation. In 1988 Hyde and her colleague Marcia Linn carried out a meta-
analysis of research dealing specifically with gender differences in verbal ability. The
conclusion they came to was that the difference between men and women amounted to
"about one-tenth of one standard deviation" - statistician-speak for "negligible". Another
scholar who has considered this question, the linguist Jack Chambers, suggests that the
degree of non-overlap in the abilities of male and female speakers in any given population is
"about 0.25%". That's an overlap of 99.75%. It follows that for any array of verbal abilities
found in an individual woman, there will almost certainly be a man with exactly the same
array.

Chambers' reference to individual men and women points to another problem with
generalisations such as "men interrupt more than women" or "women are more talkative
than men". As well as underplaying their similarities, statements of the form "women do
this and men do that" disguise the extent of the variation that exists within each gender
group. Explaining why he had reacted with instant scepticism to the claim that women talk
three times as much as men, Liberman predicted: "Whatever the average female versus
male difference turns out to be, it will be small compared with the variation among women
and among men." Focusing on the differences between men and women while ignoring the
differences within them is extremely misleading but, unfortunately, all too common.

Do women really talk more than men?

If we are going to try to generalise about which sex talks more, a reliable way to do it is to
observe both sexes in a single interaction, and measure their respective contributions. This

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cuts out extraneous variables that are likely to affect the amount of talk (like whether
someone is spending their day at a Buddhist retreat or a high school reunion), and allows
for a comparison of male and female behaviour under the same contextual conditions.

Numerous studies have been done using this approach, and while the results have been
mixed, the commonest finding is that men talk more than women. One review of 56
research studies categorises their findings as shown here:

Pattern of difference found / Number of studies

Men talk more than women / 34 (60.8%)

Women talk more than men / 2 (3.6%)

Men and women talk the same amount / 16 (28.6%)

No clear pattern / 4 (7.0%)

· Source: based on Deborah James and Janice Drakich, 'Understanding Gender Differences
in Amount of Talk', in Deborah Tannen (ed.), Gender and Conversational

The reviewers are inclined to believe that this is a case of gender and amount of talk being
linked indirectly rather than directly: the more direct link is with status, in combination
with the formality of the setting (status tends to be more relevant in formal situations). The
basic trend, especially in formal and public contexts, is for higher-status speakers to talk
more than lower-status ones. The gender pattern is explained by the observation that in
most contexts where status is relevant, men are more likely than women to occupy high-
status positions; if all other things are equal, gender itself is a hierarchical system in which
men are regarded as having higher status.

"Regarded" is an important word here, because conversational dominance is not just about
the way dominant speakers behave; it is also about the willingness of others to defer to
them. Some experimental studies have found that you can reverse the "men talk more"
pattern, or at least reduce the gap, by instructing subjects to discuss a topic that both sexes
consider a distinctively female area of expertise. Status, then, is not a completely fixed
attribute, but can vary relative to the setting, subject and purpose of conversation.

That may be why some studies find that women talk more in domestic interactions with
partners and family members: in the domestic sphere, women are often seen as being in
charge. In other spheres, however, the default assumption is that men outrank women, and
men are usually found to talk more. In informal contexts where status is not an issue, the
commonest finding is not that women talk more than men, it is that the two sexes
contribute about equally.

If it does not reflect reality, why is the folk-belief that women talk more than men so
persistent? The feminist Dale Spender once suggested an explanation: she said that people
overestimate how much women talk because they think that, ideally, women would not talk
at all. While that may be rather sweeping, it is true that belief in female loquacity is
generally combined with disapproval of it. The statement "women talk more than men"

39
tends to imply the judgment "women talk too much". (As one old proverb charmingly puts
it: "Many women, many words; many geese, many turds.")

The folk-belief that women talk more than men persists because it provides a justification
for an ingrained social prejudice. Evolutionary psychology is open to a similar criticism:
that it takes today's social prejudices and projects them back into prehistory, thus elevating
them to the status of timeless truths about the human condition.

Champions of the evolutionary approach often say it is their opponents whose arguments
are based on prejudice rather than facts or logic. They complain that feminists and other
"PC" types are unwilling even to consider the idea that sex-differences might have biological
rather than social causes. Instead of judging the arguments on their merits, these politically
motivated critics just denounce them, and those who advance them, as reactionary and
bigoted.

But their stories have a basic flaw: they are based not on facts, but on myths.

© Deborah Cameron. Extracted from The Myth of Mars and Venus published, by Oxford
University Press in hardback at £10.99. To order a copy for £9.99 with free UK p&p go
to [Link]/bookshop or call 0870 836 0875.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

DEBORAH TANNEN

Some videos and audios

Gender –specific rituals

[Link]
SAGSlpsyLo2

That's Not What I Meant! - Signals, Devices, and Rituals

[Link]
SAGSlpsyLo2&index=2

Status and Connection

[Link]
v=N6KxKecU0ig&index=4&list=PLi95tP812EOQXlZcNvPDt-SAGSlpsyLo2

Interview with Deborah Cameron and Simon Baren-Cohen

[Link]
simon-baron-cohen_news?GK_FACEBOOK_OG_HTML5=1

Everyday sexism: Laura Bates at TEDxCoventGardenWomen

[Link]

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Language and Intercultural Communication

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GENDER AND COMMUNICATION

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 Your body language shapes who you are
Watch the first part of this TED TALK (0.00-4.00) and answer the questions.

1) What does Amy Cuddy ask her audience to do at the beginning of the talk? Why
does she do this?

2) What happened with the policeman? What unfortunate impression did it give?

3) When we think about non-verbal signals, what do we consider? What do we

often forget to consider?

4) In what environment was Amy Cuddy teaching when she became interested in
power dynamics?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Watch the second part of the talk (4.00-6.08) Explain and demonstrate to each
other the following examples of body language.

1) Animals’ expressions of power and dominance.

2) The ‘pride’ gesture shown by all humans, even the blind.

3) How both animals and humans express powerlessness

4) The meeting of the powerful and the non-powerful.

5) Confident and unconfident students in the classroom.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Watch the third part of the talk (6.08-9.44) Complete Amy Cuddy’s ideas.

1) ……………….. generally feel less powerful

……………………………. .

2) Can people pretend to feel powerful? Can you

…………………………………….?

3) Evidence suggests when we are forced to

…………………………………………………………………
……………………… .

4) The second question is: Can our brain

………………………………………….? Can we
influence our ………………………………..?

What are the main differences between powerful and powerless people? How can
their roles affect their level of testosterone and cortisol?

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Watch Cuddy’s description of her first study (9.45-12.42). Complete the
summary below.

In the lab, subjects were asked to adopt high and low-power poses for ………………
minutes at a time. The researchers took a ....……..………. sample before they did
this. Then they gave the subjects an opportunity to …………………….: to take a
risk. Then the researchers took another sample. The results were that …….……per
cent were prepared to take a risk after a high-power pose and .………………. per
cent after a low-power pose. The former’s testosterone increased by …………………
per cent, the latter had a ten per cent decrease. In cortisol, the high-power pose
subjects had a twenty five per cent decrease and the low-power a fifteen per cent
……………….. . In other words, high power pose subjects were less likely to feel
………………………. .

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Watch the fifth part of the talk (12.42-16.03) Choose the correct options to
complete the sentences:

1) In the next experiment subjects adopted high-power and low-power poses

before/during/after a job interview.

2) The judges at the interview adopted high-power/low power/neutral poses.

3) The coders knew/ didn’t know/ guessed who had adopted which type of pose.

4) The coders chose to hire the high-power/low-power/neutral poses.

5) Many people object to doing the power poses because they would feel like
fools/frauds/failures.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Watch the sixth part of the talk (16.03-21.02). Answer the questions.

1) What happened to Amy Cuddy when she was nineteen? What was she told as a
result? How did she feel?

2) How did she turn the situation around?

3) What did her advisor at Princeton say to her when Amy said she was going to
quit? Did it work?

4) When Amy Cuddy’s student at Harvard came to her feeling unconfident, what
two things did Amy Cuddy realize?

5) What is Amy Cuddy’s conclusion, which goes beyond ‘fake it till you make it’?

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 1.

Crystal, D. (1995).The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge

[England: Cambridge University Press. pp 368-369

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