Cross Gender Oral Communication from Biological Difference and Socialized Identity to Mutual Understanding

Abstract

Language is an indispensable instrument whereby we organize and build our social ties in our communities, and society at large. Human language is critically interwoven into the processes whereby human beings communicate, build knowledge, transmit information, and determine the identity of both the addresser and the addressee in any communicational exchange. We could hypothetically assert that if there is unmistakably one thing without which man as a species can hardly live in the social realm, it is language par excellence. In an admittedly multi-layered and inherently complex sociolinguistic configuration, the individual speaker’s linguistic choice, the different roles he or she plays, be they in a position of addresser or addressee, and the various situations where the speech takes place do serve as markers reflecting one’s identity and communication styles. In this respect, factors such as sex, age, level of education, occupation, race, and geographical origin can virtually be reflected via one’s speech. This article sets out to analyze (1) the influential role of speech, (2) gender and identity, (3) dominance/difference, and (4) cross-gender oral communication in the Moroccan context using a homogenous convenience sample of Moroccan participants. This study falls within the scope of gender studies. Its major aim is to demonstrate the roles that mixed-gendered interlocutors can play in order to maintain effective communication. Therefore, their perceptions regarding interruptions, conversation dominance, turn-taking and choice of topics in conversations are analyzed. Different research instruments have been implemented to collect data including recordings of real-life conversational speech, classroom observation, and interviews. The findings indicate that gender-based differences permeate the conversational styles of both men and women across cultures and with divergent degrees of strength and expression. It has also been shown that although communication breakdown is a source of frustration, it remains a common phenomenon in social interactions. Therefore, overcoming difficulties in maintaining effective communication between members of different genders is dependent on the interlocutors’ belief that accepting difference in language and communication styles can make cross-gender communication a satisfactory social experience. This study is expected to raise awareness regarding the socialization processes the two sex groups have gone through which shape in substantial ways the way they speak, behave and interact among each other.

To share vulnerability is to show strength: A discursive study of self-disclosure by Chinese cancer patients on short-form video platforms

“…From the review above, it is clear that the existing research has done a lot on theme-orientedness and emotional veins in online self-disclosure by patients, but Zhang and Hou (2022) appears to have been the only study touching on both the emotional and cultural cues of Chinese patients’ self-disclosure, leaving space for the further exploration based on gender factors. Besides, it is evidenced that ‘gender-based differences permeate the conversational styles of both men and women across cultures and with divergent degrees of strength and expression’ (Benfilali et al, 2021: 13; Jaworska and Ryan, 2018). Therefore, drawing on the gender differences on this issue, discursive and emotional analysis on self-disclosure in online videos is pinpointed as an issue that is worth further investigation, especially those that take the perspective of cultural discourse studies.…”

“…Thanks to the anonymity, convenience, and popularity of social media, there is a silver lining for cancer patients as social media allow them to demonstrate self-disclosure with strangers, that is, sharing their feelings and experiences to gain comfort and support by releasing posts or videos (Wright, 2016). While the existing literature on the posts focused mainly on discursive features and emotional veins of the patients’ self-disclosure in the written form (Jaworska and Ryan, 2018; Malloch and Taylor, 2018), some studies on videos aim to detect more subtle psychosocial states of patients through the cultural cues in their oral discourse (Benfilali et al, 2021; Zhang and Hou, 2022). One finding that is of special relevance to the present study is Zhang and Hou’s (2022) discovery of the emotional and cultural cues in the discourse of self-disclosure in online videos delivered by Chinese cancer patients.…”