Students' Discourse in the Classroom: Gender Roles and Stereotypes

One of the most important linguistic terms that can help speakers define their beliefs, attitudes and expectations, as well as the beliefs, attitudes and expectations of others is discourse. It can be defined as written or oral communication. As such, it can be used as a means for discovering and analyzing various social occurrences, such as cultural, workplace or gender stereotypes. Gender roles and stereotypes is a topic which is quite debatable and complex in modern society, as we are approaching the era of complete changes in every aspect, especially in gender issues. Therefore, it might have a huge impact on education and knowledge in the future. In this paper, we are first going to define discourse by offering theoretical approach to linguistics, applied linguistics and sociolinguistics. Secondly, we are going to explain how language and society are connected and/or juxtaposed. After having offered the theoretical approach, we are going to present a research with the aim of discussing students’ discourse in the classroom and in order to analyze male and female students’ attitudes toward gender roles in contemporary society. Furthermore, students’ discourse will show us what kind of prejudices and expectations male and female students have when it comes to gender issues. One specific part of the research refers to the issue of gender sensitive language. Namely, we are going to show male and female students’ attitudes when it comes to the usage of female forms of nouns denoting titles and occupations, as this is one of the best practical examples of gender equality nowadays. All results are analyzed quantitatively in SPSS 21 and ANOVA, along with qualitative analysis. Gender roles and stereotypes are especially important for students, who are the future leaders of our society and whose knowledge about social issues can have a vast influence on the future developments of society overall. Therefore, this paper will depict the connection and mutual influences among knowledge, gender and language- the three important aspects of any society which can lead to society without borders.