English Learners Research Benefits
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men. According to Jong 1997 and Reik 1954, as cited in Haas 1979 “The possible cause of that difficulty is that men and women in fact not really be
speaking in the same language.” Women and men actually do not speak in the same language, therefore, they often have difficulty to understand each other and
sometimes they misunderstand each other. Wood 1993a also explains that the studies about gender and communication have been done by many researchers
since decades. In one of the studies that is done by Johnson as cited in Verderber, 1995 shows that men and women actually have different assumptions in
communication. He states that both men and women live in two different worlds and that becomes great evidence why both of them have different forms of
communication in the society, such as different strategies and communication goals. In the other study, Wood 1993b
also considers that feminine‟s and masculine‟s communicating styles show the clear evidence in the distinction of
the speech communities. The feminine style represents a woman‟s way of speaking and the masculine style represents man‟s way of speaking.
Tannen 1994 believes that women and men are typically engaged in distinctive styles of communication with different purposes, rules, and
understandings on how to interpret talk. It means that men and women learn the language, the rule, and how to interpret language separately, therefore, they have
some difficulties to communicate with each other. The differences between men and women are also found in the form of
discrimination in society. Women are always considered to be cornered in language use. Women are always judged to talk like a lady. They need to talk
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gracefully and courteously. If they do not do so, they will be criticized to be a not- feminine-woman. Although, when they talk gracefully and courteously, they will
also be judged as a weak person and cannot think clearly about serious problems. Lakoff as
cited in Holmes Mayerhoff, 2003 states that “Quite is a character that is need by society from a woman. On the other side, it is normal for man to
angry and act aggressively.” On the contrary, men have never been criticized when they talk rudely. People in society think that it is a common thing and it is
men‟s nature to be like that. Adaptation is a hard process for women, because in some fields, they need
to talk like a man that has a lot of benefits than when they talk like a woman. They will also encounter some risks such as they will be said as an aggressive
woman. “Tracing women‟s political communication from 1920, some have
adopted the masculine speech traditionally appropriate to politics, but have been considered abrasive and asexual as a result
” Larner, 2009, p. 5. Politics is one of the fields that acceptable for women, but it is very hard for them to use the
women‟s speech style because it holds no power. Lakoff as cited in Holmes Mayerhoff, 2003 states that women‟s language is a language of powerlessness
because there are some expressions, such as fillers or hedge, super polite forms, and question tag, that are considered irresolute and reflect women‟s position as
the subordinate in society. In current situation, men and women have the same status in society.
Women can do the job that is only done by men before and men also can be a good father and a gentleman at the same time without being afraid will be called a