As so another semester zooms past and it's time to mug for the exams again. Learning about the diverse ways in which people interact has been enlightening. I especially enjoyed the lecture on cultural components - how spoken/written discourse can in fact reveal deeper underlying norms and values about the society (whether it's masculine or feminine, whether it exercises high or low power distance and so forth). Group discussions were fruitful, we all got to bounce ideas off each other and have a good laugh at each others amusing linguistic encounters. My final project of analyzing the linguistic structure behind sociological abstracts was..daunting in the initial stages. The linguistic jargon got a bit confusing at times, and having to identify the various "moves" and "authorial stance" was rather tedious. Luckily we managed to pull through and I thought we did just fine, so yay Huey Li! Haha I have a newfound respect for linguists. It really does require researchers to be ultra meticulous in sifting out patterns behind discourse material.
And so it's also time for goodbyes. Thank you Dr Deng for being so patient with us each week and for trying to make the lectures as enjoyable as possible for us:)Twas a refreshing experience and I've definitely gained from it all. To my other classmates, it was a pleasure knowing you all, good luck for your upcoming papers and see you around:)
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
On Gender Interaction
Alrighty, I shall attempt to blog on the topic even though I didn't attend last week's lecture. I tend to engage a lot of hedge and epistemic modal forms to mediate my conversations. Like on tuesday, when I sent out a short email to the teachers at my church to tell them that I'll be planning lesson this weekend.
"hey all, i'm doing lesson on sat. i don't think i'll be planning a party. i'll just do a tiny recap and try make the lesson as lighthearted as possible. i'll be glad to hear suggestions though. i'm thinking of showing a video, that teaches them on using their christian values outside of the classroom. and maybe do a short discussion."
Above were the exact words that I used. I've also picked out and underlined the mitigating terms. I'm actually quite surprised at myself though- at the frequency I use them considering it's really not a lengthy email. Nonetheless, I do believe it's true that we shouldn't make broad sweeping assumptions about gendered language. It probably depends on the writer/speaker's own characteristics/traits too. I'm not an assertive person by nature (and ultra non confrontational), so I usually give plenty of room for alternative perspectives. I'd like to think it's not that I lack confidence, but because I'm gracious enough to allow other people to share the centrestage with me ;)
"hey all, i'm doing lesson on sat. i don't think i'll be planning a party. i'll just do a tiny recap and try make the lesson as lighthearted as possible. i'll be glad to hear suggestions though. i'm thinking of showing a video, that teaches them on using their christian values outside of the classroom. and maybe do a short discussion."
Above were the exact words that I used. I've also picked out and underlined the mitigating terms. I'm actually quite surprised at myself though- at the frequency I use them considering it's really not a lengthy email. Nonetheless, I do believe it's true that we shouldn't make broad sweeping assumptions about gendered language. It probably depends on the writer/speaker's own characteristics/traits too. I'm not an assertive person by nature (and ultra non confrontational), so I usually give plenty of room for alternative perspectives. I'd like to think it's not that I lack confidence, but because I'm gracious enough to allow other people to share the centrestage with me ;)
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