Gender Differences in Conversational styles : A conversational analysis of mixed gender online chats

Abstract

Online chat has become a necessity for majority of people. The conversational styles used in this type of social interaction inevitably reflect and maintain gender differences. The present research therefore is an attempt to both examine the conversational styles differences in mixed gender online chat and explore the reasons behind their use. The aim of this research is to provide additional evidence for the influence of gender variable on the use of different conversational styles in formal and informal conversations. To this end, a mixed method that combines between qualitative and quantitative approaches is opted. On this basis, the researchers seek to test the validity of what is hypothesized by including a variety of well- known methodological techniques. Besides to participant observation method, nine excerpts of online chats are selected to be analysed using conversation analysis and one hundred online questionnaires are distributed to second year Master female and male students at Ibn Khaldoun University. The research findings reveal that the respondents use different conversational styles in their daily online chat (including interruption, politeness, repair…), and this is because of many reasons including the social and cultural construction of gender in particular.