Response to "Teacher's Classroom Strategies Should Recognize that Men and Women Use Language Differently" by Deborah Tannen

In this article, Deborah Tannen touched on the difference in the use of language between men and women, and how this would affect classroom dynamics and performance in the real world in future. She stated that the current classroom setting that prevalently uses debate-like formats as a learning tool makes it "more hospitable" for men and she proposed in her article a method she devised as a solution to counter this existing problem to better benefit women in class. She referred to an experiment which she had conducted with the use of this new method, and it is shown to work better than the traditional format employed. In her conclusion, she acknowledged that "complete equal opportunity in class" is not attainable, but she hoped her article would motivate others to come up with "more-diverse methods to serve diverse students".

In my opinion, doubts about the objectivity of this article are present, as Tannen had already written a book on this topic before writing to the Chronicle of Higher Education, thus she would already have a pre-conceived notion of what she believed were typical of male and female communication (that there exists a difference due to difference in gender). She might have formulated her arguments to suit what she believed as evidently true. Tannen's statement on "women who go to single-sex schools do better in life" is also difficult to quantify, as everybody would have their own opinion and definition of what exactly being "successful" is. She also made generalizations such as "Boys like to challenge one another in a hierarchy" and she made a convenient link to "this also takes the form of verbal sparring", without allowing for the fact that though thoughts, speech and actions are not independent of one another, there might not exist such a direct connection between all of them in every situation. With regard to classroom discussions and participation, she was also too quick to declare her experiments as successes without fully accounting for any other possible hidden variables or factors that could have a bearing on the final outcome.

Tannen's use of specific research was also tailored to shore up her arguments in a bid to reinforce her initial stand, that men and women possess differences. She failed to address of account for possible counterexamples or glossed over other possible contributors that might have merited greater consideration and attention. Her article was peppered with numerous anecdotes, but they were rather singular in nature and should not be generalized to the entire population. For instance, her example on the young man who was disappointed nobody argued with his opinions and who found the other members unworthy of attention is but a personal perception and would differ amongst people, but Tannen assumed all males would think in a similiar fashion.

Therefore, I would be hesitant to agree that her article could be interpreted as a success due to the lack of substantial and empirical data and the liberal use of anecdotes do cast some doubts on the veracity of her arguments. She was too quick to reach conclusions that agreed with her pre-conceived mindset and views she harboured, while neglecting most of other possible valid reason, as well as perceiving silence in class as being detrimental to learning and education. She did manage to engage the reader and strike a chord with them, since they are also either educators or people who have been through this sort of formal education, and her writing from a teacher's point of view (rather than an aloof researcher) made it more personal in nature and less critical of her target audience (her fellow colleagues). Her effectiveness lie in connecting with her audience to bring forth and generate new ideas in how changes could be done to the current pedagogy, and also brought attention to combating differences among students for perceived effective and better learning. However, it cannot be declared that her method is a better one, or that it should replace the current system, as her writing is incapable of fully convincing me that her method is really more beneficial, and that it really works.