Aya Ishida
Instructions for Language Study Reflection
FOA for Language in a Cultural Context
IB Language and Literature HL/SL 1 – Mr. Lucas
Objectives:
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●
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Demonstrate an ability to express ideas clearly and with fluency in both written
and oral communication
Demonstrate an ability to use the oral and written forms of the language, in a range of
styles, registers and situations
Develop critical thinking skills by becoming a reflective, insightful learner
Question
Answer
What is your name?
Aya Ishida
What was your topic?
We explored the myth: “Women’s talk is cooperative and
supportive, whereas men’s talk is competitive and
adversarial”. We focused on this topic in order to address
that culture and context affects how a person uses
language (whether it is competitive and adversarial or
cooperative and supportive) rather than the common belief
that gender is the component that affects how a person
uses language.
What learning outcome(s) did
you address?
Explain how your part of the
presentation addressed
language.
3. Demonstrate an awareness of how language and
meaning are shaped by culture and context.
My part of the presentation addressed how women and
men’s use of language is affected by culture and context,
not gender. I presented two examples: Group A and Group
B discussion from The Myth of Mars and Venus and Emma
Watson’s UN speech. Both examples showed that the way
women and men use language was not biological and both
genders are able to use both cooperative and adversarial
language when put into context.
Explain how your part of the
I think my part of the presentation lacked addressing style.
presentation addressed style.
What did you hope to
accomplish through your
Language Study?
Through my Language Study, I hoped to have
accomplished my exploration on the relationship between
language, gender, culture and context, why many people
think that men and women speak so differently and why this
belief does not change.
How successful were you in
achieving your goal(s)? What
evidence supports your
claim?
I think I was able to explore why many people think that
men and women speak so differently and why this belief
does not change by using and analyzing examples from
The Myth of Mars and Venus as well as Emma Watson’s
HeForShe campaign speech. First, I think Emma Watson’s
HeForShe campaign speech, Cameron’s Group A and
Group B’s discussion (pages 61 to 63) and the example of
how the soccer girls reacted to the boys asking for
possession of the field (page 68) completely dispelled the
common belief that cooperative and supportive use of
language is used by women or girls whereas competitive
and adversarial use of language is used by men or boys
because both examples showed that the other gender was
able to act and use language that the myth suggested was
only used by the other gender. Second, by looking at the
examples Jeanielle and I looked at, I was able to deduce
that people think men and women use language so
differently because when people are young, especially girls,
they care about conforming and not standing out because it
might make them look less feminine, therefore, not
“popular”, but as they grow up, men and many women start
to not care about conforming and start to use language
more “similar” to men (generally seen as competitive and
adversarial language), and when they do speak language
similar to men, they are treated differently by both men and
also women that are ignorant to agree with the myth. Many
people think men and women speak differently because so
the cultural and society’s expectation says that women and
men use language differently and when a gender
(especially women) goes against the expectation, there is a
consequence, therefore, this myth or belief does not
disappear.
What do you think
contributed to your success
or lack thereof?
I think I was able to succeed in achieving my goals because
gender inequality is a topic that everybody is discussing
about for a long time, especially after Emma Watson did her
UN speech, therefore, there are so many discussion and
evidence on the correlation between language, gender, and
culture.
What did you learn about
yourself or others through
I learned that as a women (or girl) I cannot be defined or
restrained by the cultural or society’s expectation on how
completion of the Language
Study?
women are expected to act and use language.
What did you learn about
language and/or media
through completion of the
Language Study?
I always knew that the use of language was not specific for
each gender (e.g. cooperative use of language is for girls,
competitive use of language is for boys), but the only
explanation I could think of for the difference in use of
language was that the reason why there is a difference in
the way people use language is because of how they are
brought up. What I mean by this is that if a person is
brought up being taught to distinguish their use of language
depending on context, they would be able to use a different
register, however, if they are not, they would struggle to (I
do not agree with Tannen). However, through the
completion of the Language Study, I learned language is
affected by both culture and context and the reason why
women are generally thought to use the “less dominant”
use of language is because of the cultural and society’s
expectation (both men and also women) for how women
are supposed to act and use language.
Do you feel like your FOA on
Language Study was a
valuable learning
experience? Why or why
not?
I think my FOA on Language Study was a valuable learning
experience because I was able to talk in depth about the
relationship between language, gender, and culture, and
see and understand myself why so many people think
women and men speak and act differently. Also, I was able
to work collaboratively with Jeanielle, which helped me
further understand the Language Study.
Do you have any
suggestions for me to help
better prepare students for
the Language Study?
I think Mr. Lucas prepared us enough to do well for this unit.
Aside from choosing a new
topic, what will you do
differently for future FOAs or
Written Tasks on Language
Study?
Since Jeanielle and I were unable to make our FOA count
as an IB grade (in case we did well for this FOA) because
our presentation was too short, rather than using more
examples in order to get my idea across to the audience
(which can be boring), I will explain and analyze the
examples more thoroughly next time.
If you have other questions
or comments, please include
them here.
*I am also looking for
I did not understand the question: “Explain how your part of
the presentation addressed style” so I did not know how to
answer the question.
feedback about which
aspects of submitting the
FOA template were most
useful/helpful.
Learning Attitudes Scoring:
● 4 points: answered all questions seriously; showed reflection and insight
● 3 points: skipped questions; showed basic thinking rather than high-level reflection
● 2 points: shows lack of effort or caring
● 1 points: not submitted; submitted w/ total lack of respect for the assignment