The Application of Language and Gender Study in Foreign Language Teaching

The Application of Language and Gender Study in Foreign Language Learning The relationship between language and gender has long been of interest within sociolinguistics and related disciplines. Early 20th century studies in linguistic anthropology looked at differences between women’s and men’s speech across a range of languages, in many cases identifying distinct female and male language forms.
As a field, prompted by the blossoming ‘western’ Women’s Movement, language and gender really took off in the 1970s with a broad interest, particularly from feminist researchers, in the potential for male dominance of mixed-gender talk (e.g. men interrupting women more often than vice versa); in the identification of distinct female and male speaking styles (a common finding being that women tended to use more supportive or cooperative speaking styles and men more competitive styles); and in sexism, or sexist bias, in language. Research saw women’s language use as deficient (relative to men’s) in various ways; the male dominance position placed greater emphasis on differences in power between female and male speakers; and the cultural difference position saw women’s and men’s language use as ‘culturally’ different but not unequal. Women’s and men’s language use has also been interpreted in relation to politeness theory, with women seen as more linguistically polite than men.
More recently, and particularly in studies carried out since the early 1990s, gender has been reconceptualised to a significant extent, influenced by contemporary theories associated with post-structuralism. Gender is seen as a less ‘fixed’ and unitary phenomenon, with studies emphasizing considerable diversity among female and among male speakers; the shifting relationship between gender and other aspects of identity; and the importance of context in determining how people use language. From this perspective, importantly, gender is seen less as a prior attribute that affects language use and more as an interactional achievement - something that may be performed (or negotiated and perhaps contested) in specific ways in different contexts. Particularly interesting insights into such phenomena have come from recent studies of language and sexuality. Studies have also explored different discourses associated with femininity and masculinity. And there has been valuable discussion of methodological issues –e.g. what different approaches can bring to the study of language and gender (including variationist and interactional sociolinguistics, conversation analysis, critical discourse analysis, feminist post-structuralist discourse analysis and corpus linguistics).
This study will begin with a brief introduction to the major topics and theoretical approaches that have shaped early language and gender studies. Then, current research, which draws on insights from feminist post-structural theory will be
highlighted as the theoretical framework to explain foreign language learners’ reconstruction and transformation of gendered performance during their discursive reconstruction of social identities in heterogeneous sociocultural contexts, as well as its influence on their language behavior and foreign language learning. Based on the study, a discussion of educational implications that might help to facilitate foreign language education will be concluded.。