Am I Teaching "Women's English?"

By Jennie Parker

Okay, remember, content words are louder, longer, and higher than function words. When I say, “louder,” I mean volume. When I say, “longer,” I mean that the stressed vowel is elongated and fully articulated. And when I say higher, I’m talking about pitch, like this…Well, as a man, you wouldn’t have to get as high that…

As I teach patterns of American English rhythm and intonation to male clients, I find myself repeating the phrases above.  Given the differences, on average, between the pitch range of men and women, I don’t expect male clients to echo my pitch.  (An adult woman’s average range is from 165 to 255 Hz, while a man’s is 85 to 155 Hz). So, after leading male clients through enough repetition exercises to illustrate a point, I supplement training sessions with recordings of male voices.

However, this experience makes me wonder how many more of my speech characteristics are more common in women than in men. Am I teaching clients “women's English?" Are gender differences in language real?

The answer to the latter question is complicated. While some researchers suggest that there are definite differences between men and women’s speech, others have argued that not enough evidence exists to discern meaningful differences. One complicating factor is that various studies have analyzed language within different contexts, using different metrics of analysis, and often with small sample sizes.  Not to mention, our concept of gender is evolving. Indeed, it’s difficult to come to a consensus on the issue.

In response to this difficulty, Newman et al. (2008) conducted a large-scale review of 14,000 language samples across 70 separate studies.* Indeed, they found some significant differences between men and women’s language:

Compared to men, women’s speech tends to use more

• first-person singular (e.g., I, me, my),
• pronouns,
• words related to psychological and social processes,
• words related to home,
• negations, and
• verbs.

And compared to women, men’s speech tends to use more

• object properties, such as numbers, articles, and prepositions,
• words related to current concerns, including occupation and money,
• words related to sports, and
• swear words.

In addition, men tend to use longer words.
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The study describes women’s speech as “rapport style,” where verbal communication is an end unto itself, whereas, men’s speech tends to be more “report style,” serving the instrumental purpose of conveying information.
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Other studies suggest that women tend to use more rising intonation than men, suggesting deference, politeness, or cooperation, as well as more tentative speech (e.g., hedging and tag questions). In addition, women tend to formulate “wordier” sentences, but men speak more words overall and take more speaking turns.

So, some empirical evidence seems to support conventional wisdom that men and women use language differently. But what does this mean for language instructors and their students? As a female speech coach, how worried should I be that I'm teaching men "women's English?" I argue, not so much, for three reasons.  First, much of what constitutes English rhythm and intonation patterns is universal. Whether you're male, female, or non-binary, stress should fall in a somewhat predictable pattern within an utterance. Second, speaking exercises can often be supplemented with audio samples that correspond with a client's gender. Finally, in my own practice, I encourage clients to use as much of their own material as possible within our sessions. Clients have sent me their presentations, field-specific vocabulary lists, lectures, articles, scripts, and interview questions, among other meaningful speech samples from their lives. Use of their own materials, unedited by me (except for an occasional word choice or grammatical correction), would negate any effects my gender has on their use of language.  Clients and I then work together to analyze and rehearse the samples, so that they're soon communicating clearly and confidently - and in a style that is their own.

*Note, there is no mention of whether or not the subjects in Newman's study are cisgender nor does the study include non-binary subjects.