In How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently, by Deborah Tannen, she discusses how the different genders participate in conversation. Tannen states that sociologists and anthropologists have found that a girl will have a best friend that they will tell anything to. Boys have to have activities to do with their best friends and they tend to play in larger groups. She talks about splitting her class into smaller groups to get everybody to participate and she discovered that everybody was a little bit more open after that.
I think that a strength in this paper is that she really knows what she's talking about. I mean, not only did she do the research, via internet or interview, but she also put it to the test in her classroom. That really seemed to work in her favor.
I definitely agree with her. Every once in a while I will say something in a class, but I tend to be silent. It's not because I'm afraid of saying of something, it's just that I would rather listen. I remember in high school, that my english teacher would split us up to talk about our papers. I would actually talk to my group and I think that helped a great deal. However, I would be quiet as soon as we got back to our seats.
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