Our Teenagers Need Social Skills, Not Social Networks

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/22/teenagers-social-skills-not-social-networks-work-ncs

Language and Gender

Men	Women
Dominate a conversation by topic initiation, topic shifts, holding the floor, lack of turn-yielding clues, interrupting and generally speaking more.	More submissive in a conversation and likely to speak less. Unlikely to interrupt, initiate or change topics or attempt to hold the floor.
Use a more informal register through their use of accent, taboo, slang, dialect, sociolect and grammatical variations. Likely to use covert prestige to sustain a masculine identity.	More likely to use overt prestige to help create a feminine identity and succumb to stereotypes on how a ‘lady-like’ woman should talk (more formal lexis and less phonological variations).
More likely to be factual, competitive, direct and detached when speaking while maintaining a need for status.	More likely to be supportive, cooperative, polite, apologetic and emotional when speaking.

1. Robin Lakoff (1975)

1. 1Hedges: Phrases like ‘sort of’, ‘kind of’, ‘it seems like’
2. 2Empty adjectives: ‘divine’, ‘adorable’, ‘gorgeous’
3. 3Super-polite forms: ‘Would you mind …’, ‘Is it Ok if …?’
4. 4Apologise more: ‘I'm sorry, but I think that …’
5. 5Speak less frequently
6. 6Avoid coarse language or expletives
7. 7Tag questions: ‘You don't mind eating this, do you?’
8. 8Hyper-correct grammar and pronunciation: Use of prestige grammar and clear articulation
9. 9Indirect requests: ‘I'm so thirsty.’ – really asking for a drink
10. 10Speak in italics: Use tone to emphasis certain words, e.g., ‘so’, ‘very’, ‘quite’.
11. 
    

      Deborah Tannen (1990)

• Status vs Support: Men use language to show power and dominance in conversations; women are more likely to use language choices that support and agree with others.
• Independence vs Intimacy: Men will use language to show they do not need to rely on others; women will prefer to use language as a way of connecting with others and maintaining closeness.
• Advice vs Understanding: Men are more likely to offer solutions to a problem through their language choices; women will show empathy and understanding to a given situation.
• Information vs Feelings: Similar to Tannen's Advice vs Understanding concept, men are far more likely to be factual in their language choices; women, in contrast, will use language choices that are less factual and stem from a more emotional viewpoint.
• Orders vs Proposals: In conversations, men are far more likely to be direct in their language using imperatives to command others; women will avoid such a commanding tone and be more suggestive in their language choices (for example, a man may say ‘Close that window it's cold’ whereas the woman is more likely to say ‘Isn't it cold in here?’ suggesting the window needs to be closed).
• Conflict vs Compromise: Men are more likely to use language to argue a point; women will use language to avoid such conflict and are far more likely to negotiate with others to try and find a solution or compromise.