Exploring Students’ Linguistic Behavior in Islamic Azad University of Zanjan: A Gender Study

Not only are women physically and emotionally different from men, but they also display a different linguistic behavior. These differences seem to be natural; however, they are significant in terms of applied linguistics in general andsociolinguistics in particular. The fact that how men and women behave and express themselves in different same-sex ordifferent-sex situations such as at home, office, university, and so on is of great significance to sociolinguists. In order to figure out the differences of linguistic behaviors between men and women, a study in Islamic Azad University ofZanjan was conducted. 10 students were asked to take part in a conversation about ‘the quality of the food served in University canteen . Three groups were formed: only-male group, only-female group, and mixed group containing both sexes. They were told that the conversations were going to be tape-recorded. The conversations were recorded andtranscribed. Some results were in line with the theories in vogue in sociolinguistics and some were quite opposite.Significant differences among the women and men styles of speech were observed. First, the frequency of occurrence offillers among both men and women was erratic in different situations (in both same-sex and different-sex situations). Second, turn-takings were observed more among men. Third, the gendered-speech was based on social norms and clichés, and we could communicate efficiently with the opposite sex only when we are aware of each other’s styles of speech

کلیدواژه ها:

Gender ، Gendered speech ، Gender theories ، Linguistic behavior ، Turn taking