ERIC Number: EJ856474
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Sep
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1350-293X
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Available Date: N/A
Dominant and Submissive Language in Children's Conversational Acts: A Gender Comparison
Bablekou, Zoe
European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, v17 n3 p283-296 Sep 2009
This paper reviews the literature concerning differences in the linguistic style of girls/boys in everyday interactions, and presents empirical data from a study with Greek school children. Two age groups were studied, 6.5 years (N=100) and 9.5 years (N=100), respectively. Everyday life situations were presented, asking children to express what they would do if a certain situation occurred. Our main hypothesis predicted that girls would adopt a more passive and submissive conversational style whereas boys would express themselves using more dominant and more aggressive communication styles. The results confirmed the above prediction: gender differences were observed when children responded to hypothetical everyday life situations. However, at 9.5 years, differences in dominant/submissive style and also in talkativeness became much milder. Results are interpreted in the frame of a combined socio-cultural and social-developmental account. The differences observed appear to be related to specific "masculine" and "feminine" roles, attributed to the two sexes by societal norms. (Contains 4 tables.)
Descriptors: Gender Differences, Literature Reviews, Language Styles, Age Differences, Cohort Analysis, Social Development, Sociocultural Patterns, Foreign Countries, Communication Research, Interaction Process Analysis, Elementary School Students, Sociolinguistics
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Publication Type: Information Analyses; Journal Articles
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
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Identifiers - Location: Greece
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