Sex Variation in English and English Language Teaching

Author: Tzyh-lai Huang(Department of English, National Taiwan Normal University)

Abstract：

This paper explores educational advantage of the interest in sex-linked language generated by the women's movement and carefully examines the issues raised by femi-nists. After a brief introduction reviewing the recent history of lauguage and gender, sex variation in English is explored from the perspectives of sexism in language, the use of language, and conversational strategies. Sex variation is then discussed in terms of (1) the effects of the feminist critique on English and (2) activities for teaching about sex variation in English. It is hoped that Chinese teachers of English will be able to distinguish between fact and opinoin, stereotype and generalization, hypothesis and re-search findings and at the same time to help their students avoid using words and ex-pressions that are no longer acceptable to many people and organizations.

Keywords：English language teaching, sexist language, language and gender, sexism in English

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