Males’ versus females’ talk on online discourse: The case of hedges and report/rapport talk

Abstract

Differences in the ways that men and women employ language have long been of interest in the study of discourse. Despite extensive theorizing, current empirical research still lacks the generalization of gender’s effect on oral use of language. In this thesis gender’s impact on language use was examined among different competent users of English whether being it their home language (L1) or a foreign language (FL)/second language (L2). A total of 30 out of 100 participants have taken part of debatable discussions on an advanced technological live setting known as; Google+ hangouts. The study focused on two main dimensions: hedges and report/rapport talk. It has attempted to see whether differences of this kind have a stereotype use in the speech styles of men and women, and to see whether these differences develop in on air interactions between genders. In order to collect the data needed for the study an observation of the hangouts and a feedback interview were used. A total of 8 debatable online hangouts were recorded and transcribed for the investigation. In addition, the feedback semi-structured interview was conducted with 10 participants from the same population to examine the existence of stereotypes on genders’ language use. For the analysis phase, the researchers opted for the statistical software (SPSS) to present the data gathered and make the research more reliable. The results obtained revealed that men use the hedging devices more than women and rapport in the same way women do. Surprisingly, both sexes report equally. Moreover, the stereotypic genders’ speech style is dogmatic. In other words, it is a definite global prejudice