Level: Medium

The following activity is loosely based on Conversation Analysis readings, so nothing is hard and fast doctrine. It seeks to be thought-provoking and there may be a grain of truth in some of the statements below. Remember also that men and women express themselves differently according to the make-up of the conversation group. That is, the group may be mixed gender, all male or all female, hence the type of exchanges will be different-the atmosphere too. Furthermore, the group may be friends, work-mates, academics, a meeting ....

If nothing else, it should generate chat.

Put yes (Y) or no (N) for the sentences below.

Generally speaking, when I converse with people I know:

• I am a blunt person
• I criticise people
• I am a little sarcastic
• I ask a lot of questions in a conversation, to find out about people, their thoughts, etc
• I rarely admit I am wrong about something when I am in a conversation
• I make eye-contact and use body language in conversations
• I generalise
• I get personal with people in conversations; I may even gossip about a mutual friend
• I compliment people spontaneously
• I use four-letter words, coarse language
• I like to talk about myself
• I am a good listener
• I prefer to talk about non-personal topics, such as unemployment, the economy, current affairs ...
• I usually talk about personal problems, people, their way of being, hopes, desires, my family ...
• I get personal when I write a letter to someone, but not face to face in a conversation
• I help to keep a conversation flowing, I am not provocative, controversial, confrontational ...
• I like to get my say, get in a few comments, no matter what the topic
• I don't assert something, but I might preface a comment with "I think, I suppose, perhaps"
• I talk a lot
• If I ask a question, it is generally a yes-no answer I am looking for
• I don't mind talking about a situation where I was embarrassed,humiliated and so on

** Results ** (A personal view)
Men, it is said, are more assertive, sarcastic, long-winded, non-personal and so on, while women are collaborative, personal and happy to take a back seat in many chats-it is said. So, working on the previous assertions-and more-you can score the test the following way:

4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 21 would be more feminine traits-generally speaking The rest, male.

Once again, the activity should not give rise to aggressive exchanges.

Source: http://iteslj.org

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