Analyzing How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently In Deborah Tannen’s essay How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently, she discusses how conversational styles are different between the genders and how they influence the classroom. The first thing Tannen discusses is how girls prefer to have a best friend to sit with and to tell secrets to, which is what makes them best friends, but the boys like larger groups and "are expected to use language to seize center stage" Tannen also discusses the issue of classrooms using debate-like formats as a learning tool. Most boys like this method, while girls tend to turn away from it. Finally, Tannen expresses the need to utilize multiple discussion formats for the children to
