I am an Anthropology major, and in my class we are currently
studying linguistics and the reflection they have on the gender, ethnics and
socioeconomic standards of people.
During the lecture I noticed a lot that seemed to relate back to our
class and the presenting we are doing on Friday. Starting with the presentation, we discussed
report versus rapport, which sociolinguist Deborah Tannen studied and labeled as
a gendered speech difference—but more importantly described the implications of
both in official public speaking. Rapport
is a softer, more relationship and conversation oriented form of speech. This is characterized by heightening tones at
the end of a sentence, leaving your words more open to interpretation and less
confrontational. Rapport is more often
than not a negative form of speech in presentations, and many public speaking
classes actually try to teach away the heightening tones and instill reporting
instead. Report, claimed is a man-dominated
form of speech, is characterized by the lowering of tones at the end of a
sentence. This is meant to exude
finality and dominance and is the ideal form of speech for a presentation. The finality and sureness has been shown to
be more respected. While I am not sure I
necessarily buy into the female/male difference, I do agree that the lowering
tones shows far more confidence in what you are saying. It gave me a good insight to tone usage and will
be helpful for me to keep in mind when I am practicing for my presentation.
No comments:
Post a Comment