This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
This course deals with gender and how it affects and is affected by language. Topics that will be covered include the following: biological sex and social gender; the different social roles of genders and how these are manifested in language structure and language practices (such as discourse and conversation strategies); the theories that have been put forward to explain these linguistic differences; linguistic stereotypes about gender; the language of children; queer speech.
Total Contact Hours: 20
• In-Course Test (45 minutes) – 20%
• Final Project (2,500 words) – 80%
Indicative Reading List:
Cameron, D. (2007) The myth of Mars and Venus. Do Men and Women Really Speak Different Languages? Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Coates, J. (2015) Women, men, and language: a sociolinguistic account of gender differences in language. London: Routledge Linguistics Classics.
Coates, J. & Pichler, P. (2011) Language and Gender: A Reader. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Simpson, P. (2009) Language and Power: A Resource Book for Students. London: Routledge English Language Introductions.
Talbot, M.M. (2010) Language and Gender. Cambridge: Polity Press.
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
By the end of this module students will be able to:
8.1 Demonstrate a systematic and critical understanding of the issues relating to gendered language use;
8.2 Demonstrate a systematic advanced-level and critical understanding of the theories that have been proposed to account for gender-related differences in language use;
8.3 Deploy critical analysis to data that either refer to speakers in terms of their gender or are gendered (e.g. they come from single-gender or mixed-gender conversations);
8.4 Critically evaluate gender views projected by the media;
8.5 Demonstrate a nuanced appreciation of the differences between sex, gender, sexual and gender orientation and their effects on language use and language evaluation;
8.6 Appreciate the different methodologies used in research on gender.
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