Tannen
Response to Tannen Men and women are very different in behavioral characteristics and therefore it is not surprising that sexes differ in language tendencies. In Deborah Tannen’s essay “I’ll Explain It to You: Lecturing and Listening”, she asserts the belief that even though men and women speak the same structural language, their motivations for speech and conversational patterns are very different. In the earlier years of development, Tannen observes that girls use speech to find confirmation and establish intimacy, whereas boys use speech to assert their independence and attain social status. ... Tannen provides specific observations of gender communication that portrays women as passive reactors in a conversation and men as the dominant aggressors. For example, Tannen writes that men tend to lead the conversation while women tend to offer their opinions of agreement or disagreement. ... In response to Tannen ideas, I find that there are no parallels to my experiences and her observations. ... In no way do Tannen’s observations of language according to gender reflect upon my speech tendencies.