Gender Differences

       According to Trudgill, P. (2000), the first thing you notice about somebody when you first meet them is what sex they are, he argues that is so obvious that we do not even think about it, he says the division of the human race into male and female is so fundamental that we take it for granted. He says that the fact the difference is so basic means that is also reflected in all human language, according to him it is a semantic universal which is lexicalized in all the languages of the world in terms of pairs of such as man-woman, boy-girl, son-daughter and so on.

       Trudgill, P. (2000) establishes that languages do differ in the extend of which sex differences are lexicalized, in German for example you have to specify whether a friend is male or female, freund for male and freundin for female, he says that in English you do not, he gives the example of cousin, it is not mark for sex but it is marked in other languages like French, where you have to specify whether you refer to a man or a woman, cousin for male and cousine for female.

       Trudgill, P. (2000) says that gender differentiation in language, arises because the language as social phenomenon is related to social attitudes. The same author affirms that men and women are socially different, and the society lays down different social roles for them, and expects different behavior patterns from them, he affirms that language reflect this social fact.

       Trudgill, P. (2000) refers a case of sex differentiation that come from the West Indies, It was reported that when the European arrived to the Lesser Antilles and met with the Carib Indians who lived there, they discovered that men and women spoke different languages. Related to this case, Trudgill, P. (2000) talks about a contemporary report from the seventeenth century that says the men have a great many expressions peculiar to them, which the women understand but never pronounce themselves. On the other hand the women have words and phrases which the men never use or they would be laugh to scorn. Thus it happens that in their conversations it often seems as if the women had another language than the men.

       The explanation founded in Trudgill, P. (2000) study for this case is that men and women spoke the same language but with different variety of the same language, for this case according to the text, the Indian had an explanation widely accepted.  The savages natives of Dominica that the reason for this is that when the Caribs came to occupy the islands these were inhabitant by Arawak tribe which they exterminate completely, with the exception of the women, whom they married in order to populate the country. 

       According to Trudgill, P. (2000), it is asserted that there are some similarities between the speech of the continental Arawaks and that of the Carib women. The differences then were believed the result of the mixing of the two languages groups, Carib and Arawak , divided on sex lines, as a result of an invasion.

       Sex differentiation, in some cases, may be the result of the phenomenon of taboo. It is known that when the Carib men were on the war-path they would use a number of words which only adults males were allow to employ. If women or uninitiated boys used these words, bad luck was considered likely to result Trudgill, P. (2000) Citing Jespersen.

       Trudgill, P. (2000) says that taboo may have a powerful influence on the growth of separated sex vocabularies generally. If taboo becomes associated with a particular activity such that, say, women are not permitted to use the original name then new words are likely to be used instead and sex differentiation of vocabulary items will result.

       Trudgill, P. (2000) found in his research that in most analyzed cases, taking in consideration factors like social class, ethnic group and age, women on overage use form which more closely approach those of the standard variety or the prestige accent than those used by men. In other words he emphasizes females speaker of English tend to use linguistic forms which are considered to be better than male forms.

       Comparing the language of men and women in a large, heterogeneous sample of written and spoken text reveal small but consistent gender differences in language use. For the women who contributed 8,353 text file to the study, the English language was more likely to be used for discussing people and what they were doing, as well as communicating internal processes to others, including doubts. Thoughts, emotions, senses, other people, negation, and verbs in present and past tense figure high on the list of words women used more than men Newman et al. (2008).

      For the men who contributed 5,970 files, language was more likely to serve as a repository of labels for external events, objects and processes. Along with discussions of occupation, money, and sports were technical linguistic feature such as numbers, articles, prepositions, and long words. Swear words added emphasis to male language Newman et al. (2008).

       Contrary to popular stereotypes men and women are indistinguishable in their references to sexuality, anger, time, their use of the first-person plural, the number of words, the question marks employed, and the insertion of qualifier in the form of exclusion words like but, although. The primary difference between man and woman was that men´s speech was characterized by more negative emotions and more references to the past relative to men´s writing Newman et al. (2008).

Codeswitching

       Thompson, M. (2013) affirms that one of the reasons why people code switch is to fit in, he said that people do this both, consciously and unconsciously; they act and talk more like those around them he says this can be effective sometimes and perilous other times. He refers the case of a Spanish teacher that replied to his principal with:  "Nah, you flaugin' bruh, I put that on your desk yesterday."  When the principal asked for the school improvement plan, the teacher was in close contact with their African American students and that explain his response.

       Thompson, M. (2013) argues that people code switch in order to get something, he says that people code switch to actively ingratiate themselves to others, he says to have many stories about people who work in service industries who said that a Southern accent is a surefire way to get better tips and more sympathetic customers. He advises that if you can pull off the right accent in the right context, you can get all kinds of favors.

       We switch code also in order to say something in secret, according to Thompson, M. (2013), he talks about the incident that Venezuelan girl had. Talking about switch code she said: One rainy afternoon a very nice-looking man ran into the train, and my friend and I made some comments to each other in French about how handsome he was. To our surprise, he answered back, "Merçi!" — in perfect French.

Codeswitching in West Africa

      Amuzu, E. K., & Singler, J. V. (2014) affirm that literature in West Africa have been that codeswitching is particular likely when the speaker are urban, young and educated. He says that codeswitching has linked also to informal speech. He cites other author that argue every Nigerian speaker is involved in in the phenomena of codeswitching and code mixing of English and native language.

Amuzu, E. K., & Singler, J. V. (2014) citing Breitborde (1983) argue that speakers use codeswitching to express and maintain social status.

       Amuzu, E. K., & Singler, J. V. (2014) referring to the grammatical studies of codeswitching cite Forson (1979) who states: when we say a person is using a language x, what we are actually saying is that he is using the grammatical system and grammatical items of that language, and not necessarily the lexical item, thus, in Akan English code-switching the speakers are using the Akan grammatical system and items, and therefore speaking Akan.

       Amuzu, E. K., & Singler, J. V. (2014) citing other author focuses on the specific of highly argumentative political talk-radio programs in Ghana to demonstrate speakers manipulation of language choice (Akan versus English) and codeswitching as strategies for gaining control of the discussions and dominating it.

       Citing Federica Guerini ´s article, Amuzu, E. K., & Singler, J. V. (2014) says that she demonstrated that Ghanaian immigrant have brought the language attitude and practices they developed in Ghana to their new location, except for the occasional switch to Italian. She affirms that the Akan spoken in the immigrant community is going to a process that leads from codeswitching to language mixing.

       Flamenbaum, R. (2014) argues that many talk-radio programs in Ghana, nearly all are characterized by a big rate of switches to English. approaching  this talk-radio data from combining ethnography methodology  this author suggest that high frequency codeswitching on Ghanaian talk radio, and the pragmatic that underline it, is an indication of historical and ongoing anxiety around language choice and identity in contemporary Ghana.

      Listener disparage such switches as an indication of  a lack of proficiency in the local language, as an elitist tactic to demonstrate one´s linguistic superiority, and as a method of obfuscating and politicking, this author argues that codeswiching in an ostensibly all-Akan speech frame can also be seen as a conversational strategy in multilingual speaker´s repertoires, which draws on the multivalent and ambivalent prestige of these languages in the pragmatic marking of new information and constructions of fragment and negotiation for the floor. Flamenbaum, R. (2014).  

       According to Flamenbaum, R. (2014), some speakers deliberately codeswitch to obfuscate –competing glosses which suggest that codeswitching as a practice may be motivated by alternately functional,  pragmatic, or stylistic need, and not exclusively motivated by a lack of mastery over the vernacular.

      Flamenbaum, R. (2014) says that switches into English on Ghanaian radio are a conversational strategy that rest on the nexus of information structure and the pragmatic, sequential need of argumentation. The author concludes his study by arguing that switches into English occur for strategic, pragmatic reasons within the context of talk-radio debates in Accra.

       Macaro, E., & Lee, J. H. (2013) refer to the codeswitching ´s topic in a classroom context, whether teaching English in English or using L1. Citing other author he says that it is provided justification for the use of L1 in communicative language while for a minority the presence of L1 in classroom impact negatively on the amount of time learners are exposed to L2.

        In South Korea, English language education it is strongly promoted by the ministry of education through the notion of teaching English in English, which implies that teachers should conduct English classes in English. However Korean teacher find difficulties implementing this recommendation in the early years, one of the main reason being learners’ inabilities to process the teacher´s input Macaro, E., & Lee, J. H. (2013).

       One of the main fuction of code switching in South Korea has been shown to be for the explanation of new vocabulary. De la Campa and Nassaji codes instances of codeswitching in adult classes and found that inexperienced teachers provided translations equivalents for new lexical items considerably more than experienced teachers. The finding implies that greater experiences may enhance a teacher’s abilities to solve problems posed by L2- only instruction. The issue of whether to switch might therefore also be related to the skillfulness of the teacher  Macaro, E., & Lee, J. H. (2013).

Reference

Trudgill, P. (2000). Sociolinguistics: An introduction to language and society.

 (4th ed.). Suffolk: Penguin Books.

Thompson, M. (2013). Five Reasons Why People Code-Switch. Retrieved February 28, 2016, from http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/04/13/177126294/five-reasons-why-people-code-switch

Newman, M. L., GROOM, C. J., Handelman, L. D., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2008). Gender Differences in Language use:An analysis of 14,000 text samples. Routledge. Retrieved from http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/faculty/pennebaker/reprints/newmansexdif2007.pdf

Macaro, E., & Lee, J. H. (2013). Teacher Language Background, Codeswitching, and English-Only Instruction: Does Age Make a Difference to Learners' Attitudes?. TESOL Quarterly,47(4), 717-742. doi:10.1002/tesq.74

Flamenbaum, R. (2014). The pragmatics of codeswitching on Ghanaian talk radio. International Journal Of Bilingualism,18(4), 346-362. doi:10.1177/1367006913481136

Amuzu, E. K., & Singler, J. V. (2014). Codeswitching in West Africa.International Journal Of Bilingualism, 18(4), 329-345. doi:10.1177/1367006913481135