In order to fully understand the article “Teacher’s Classroom Strategies Should Recognize that Men and Women Use Language Differently” by Deborah Tannen, the intentions of the author must be discussed. It is impossible to fully understand the purpose for writing an article but with the way that it is presented it can be fairly certain that it was written to bring light to the issue of the way men and women learn and communicate. It was not to persuade or to convince her audience that one teaching style is better than another but rather to getting teacher’s and professors at all levels to consider a new way of teaching.
Tannen had put lots of thought into the way that her findings and ideas were presented to her readers. This article was published in the Chronicle of Higher Education and therefore it can be assumed that the majority of those reading will be professors at post-secondary institutions. This is a very academic environment where they are used to reading very formal papers but Tannen chose to write very anecdotally. This was very strategic on her part. She chose to write in an informal tone in order to help make her article more appealing to her audience. She is presenting a different way of teaching, had she taken a very scientific and formal approach her audience would be less receptive to her message. Teaching styles can be very personal to an individual and to be told that it may not be the best method of teaching can cause one to become defensive.
Tannen’s article does not only use anecdotal methods but she does reference other academic findings. This allows her personal stories and the teaching method at hand to become more credible to the reader. She did not simply write the article for the sake of writing but rather researched the topic prior. Tannen uses an example of a male colleague of hers having never thought about teaching in that way. This makes her article more appealing to the majority of the readership. Considering the majority of professors are male at the post secondary level it could have come across as very gender biased since a female wrote the article. By incorporating her male colleague and his response to her findings about different learning styles between men and women suggests to the reader that it is acceptable to consider this new method. It eliminates the gender bias that could have been interpreted.
This article was written on the assumption that professors teach in the traditional way. The traditional method of teaching is very structured and often times is more beneficial to the male students. It can be assumed that Tannen was writing to an audience that is open minded and wiling to consider a different teaching method. Without this assumption she would be writing in a manor that would appeal to no one.
The approach that Tannen took while writing this article was very effective. Her purpose for writing the article was to get her readership to reconsider the way they teach. She is not trying to get all her readers to change to this new style of teaching but rather have them take into consideration gender differences in learning. She wrote with a very feasible goal in mind. By approaching this subject in a very informal matter makes this more appealing to her audience. She is taking a somewhat controversial subject and presenting it in a very non-threatening manner. This will allow for readers to be more receptive. The use of narrative and incorporating her male colleague takes away some of the suspected resistance she would receive from the male dominant field of professors. Every aspect of her article was well planned. She took into consideration different forms of resistance she would receive for writing about this controversial subject and presented it in the least controversial way she could.
