One interesting idea is that women are more likely to use various linguistic devices to lessen the degree of their statements. For example: "I would probably like to leave soon," rather than saying "I would like to leave." In a study done by the University of Texas-Austin reported on by U.S. News and World Report in July 2007 stated that while men and women typically use the same number of words each day, women are more likely to use pronouns while men use more articles. This agrees with the notion that women are more likely to talk about people, while men talk more about things.
Men are more likely to promote hierarchal relationships and talk about what they done. While women tend to form support networks and talk in encouraging ways. The contrast between these styles is where communication between men and women tends to fall apart. We can see that in a classroom discussion, while women would tend to build off of each other's ideas in order to move the conversation along, men often express more critical ideas and explain why they disagree with particular points.
I think that this is an important topic for all teachers. Most of us will end up in coed schools, since there are very few all-girl or all-boy schools. We need to know how to moderate between the genders and show that each gender is valued for their communication methods. Since the female method of communication tends to be less dominant, males are often blamed for their own actions, which isn't fair either. Communication with our students is a two-way street; it's not only about how our students interact with each other, we need to be conscious of how each gender responds to a male or female teacher.
Websites consulted:
http://www.eioba.com/a70155/relationships_and_communication_styles
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070708/16talk.htm
http://feminism.eserver.org/gender-differences.txt
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