Prabarini Dwi Pangestu

1. THE EFFECTS OF GENDER IN
SPEAKING AND USING LANGUAGE
OF ELESP STUDENTS IN
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
By :
Prabarini Dwi Pangestu
091214065

2. Literature Review
Introduction
Methodology
Result and Discussion
Conclusion
Appendices

4. Introduction
Cameron (1996, in
Eckert and
McConnel,2003)
stated that women and
men categorically said to
be different.
It is now widely accepted that women and men talk
differently, women and men make differential use of the
linguistic resources available to them (Thorne and
Henley, 1975, in Mills 1995).

5. Cont.
• Language is a medium of expressing and
reflecting gender identity (Talbot, 1998, in
Eckert and McConnel, 2003).
According to Ige and de Kadt (2002, in
Boakye, 2007) women’s and men’s
language serve as an important factor in
the construction of their identities and is
used to maintain relation of power.

6. Cont.
Aim
To analyze whether gender still affects a person to
speak in daily conversation or not
• Research question
How does gender affect ELESP (English Language
Education Study Program) students semester 6 of
Sanata Dharma University in speaking in daily
conversation?

7. Literature Review
• The forming of gender (West and Zimmerman, 1987, in
Eckert and McConnel, 2003)
• The special vocabulary of women (Lakoff, 1973)
• The paradox theory about standard grammar for
women (Labov, 1991, 2001, Eckert and
McConnel, 2003)
• Nonstandard grammar for men (Peter Trudgill, 1972, in
Eckert and McConnel, 2003)
• The theory why women use standard language and
men use non standard language (Bourhis 1975, J.
Edwards 1982, in Bergval, Bing, and Freed, 1996).

8. Cont.
• The theory of women’s powerlessness
(Tannen,1990 and Holmes, 1995 in
Kuntjara, 2003)
• Theory of politeness which focuses on informal
context (Brown and Levinson, 1987, in
Boakye, 2005)
• Theories on gender and language suggest that
females use language that is passive, indicating
shyness and lower self-confidence (Lakoff's
,1973, in Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 2003).

9. Methodology
1. Subject
• The 6th semester students of ELESP, Sanata
Dharma University
• There are 12 students : 6 males and 6
females
2. Types of Research
• Qualitative  Questionnaire
• Library study

10. Cont.
3. Setting
• Place : Sanata Dharma University
• Time : May 2012
4. Data Gathering
• Questionnaire  Close-ended questions with
scaled response

11. Result and Discussion
• What is gender?
Gender is not something we are born with, and not
something we have but something we do (West and
Zimmerman, 1987, in Eckert and McConnel, 2003).
• Empty Adjectives (Lakoff, 1973)
- Avoidance of strong swear words
- Hypercorrect grammar
- Super polite form
- Empty adjective
- Question tag

12. Question 1 : When you are angry you tend to use word
Damn  Showing anger
• Avoidance of strong swear words
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Male Female
Strongly Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
Women are more likely said as powerless because they always use more standard
language rather than men. Brown and Levinson (1987, in Boakye, 2007) stated
women’s use of language as a face-saving device (Politeness strategy) is a result
of their powerlessness

13. Question 2 : When you are happy you prefer to show
your happiness by saying “I am very happy!” 
Showing Happiness
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Male Female
Strongly Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

14. Question 3 : When you are sad, you always complain by saying
“Oh God. How could this happen to me?”  Expressing
sadness
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Male Female
Strongly Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

15. Question 4 : Even though with your friends, to request
something you’ll still say “Could you open the window
for me please?”  Requesting
• Hypercorrect grammar
According to Labov (1991, 2001, in Eckert and McConnel 2003) women’s
grammar is more standard then men. On the other hand, Trudgill (1972, in
Eckert and McConnel, 2003), men are more likely use non standard
language because of their association with working-class masculinity
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
Male Female
Strongly Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

16. Cont.
Leech (1983, in
Kuntjara, 2003) stated that
indirect request is more polite
than direct one
Blum Kulka (1987, in Kuntjara, 2003)
disagreed with Leech’s statement.
According to him, politeness in asking
request cannot be guaranteed by direct
or indirect request, because he thought
that indirect request is ambiguous and
not clear, it makes less polite.

17. Question 5 : When someone makes mistake and asks
for apology, you easily forgive him/her by saying “Never
mind. It’s okay”  Giving apology
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Male Female
Strongly Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

18. Question 6 : When you ask for apology, you tend to beg to be
forgiven and say word “Sorry” for many times  Asking for
apology
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Male Female
Strongly Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree
By saying sorry, sometimes it’s always considered as powerless, Tannen
(1990, in Kuntjara, 2003) and Holmes (1995, in Kuntjara, 2003) stated that
someone who says sorry can take a one-down position and also it can be
concluded as admission of powerless

19. Question 7 : To interrupt 2 friends who are arguing, you tend to say
“Excuse me, may I interrupt you two?” before interrupting 
Interrupting
• Super polite form
Brown and Levinson (1987, in Boakye, 2007) stated that women show
their politeness in order to show their deference. The theory has stated
that women are more polite and do not use swearing words.
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
Male Female
Strongly Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

20. Question 8 : In order to give compliment to someone else, you use
lively words such as lovely, adorable, cute, or fantastic  Giving
compliment
• Empty adjective
According to Lakoff (1973), women have their own vocabulary when they speak.
He claimed that women tend to use empty adjectives such
as, adorable, charming, divine, lovely, etc to show their feeling rather than men .
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Male Female
Strongly Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

21. Question 9 : To respond a compliment from someone
else you just say thank you  Responding compliment
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Male Female
Strongly Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

22. Question 10 : When you are uncertain about something, you
tend to use question tag, for example “Next week, we are going
to have Structure test, aren’t we?”  Showing uncertainty
• Question tag
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Male Female
Strongly Agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

23. Conclusion
• Men and women speak differently
• Time has changed but the gender’s term for
speaking does not
• Gender does affect someone when he or she
speaks in daily conversation

24. Appendices
• Questionnaire
• Result

25. References
• Bergvall, Victoria L. (Ed.), Janet M. Bing, Alice F. Fred.
Rethinking Language and Gender : Research Theory and Practice. (1996). London
and New York : Longman
• Boakye, Naomi Adjoa. (2007). Gender Aspects of Vague Language Use : Formal
and Informal Context. University of South Africa
• Eckert, Penelope & Sally McConnell-Ginet. (2003). Language and Gender.
UK : Cambridge University Press.
• Kuntjara, Esther. (2003). Gender : Bahasa dan Kekuasaan. Jakarta :
Gunung Mulia.
• Lakoff, Robin. 1973. Language and Woman’s place. Source from : Language in
Society, Vol 2, pp 45-80. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Retrieved April 13th, 2012, from:
http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist156/Lakoff_1973.pdf
• Wardaugh, Ronald. (1986). An Introduction of Sociolinguistics. Oxford and
New York : Blackwell Publisher, Ltd. Pp 312-325