Abstract:
Differences in conversational styles between men and women usually turn out to disadvantage women. Language perpetuates male dominance and determines the way we view the world around us. It is not clear however; whether men are actually superior to women. The main objective in this study is to establish whether participants on Mulembe FM call-in programmes use different conversational styles in mitigating their face needs and how notions of power and powerlessness tend to manifest as a factor of their socio-cultural background. A mixed method approach on the case study of Mulembe FM radio station call-in programmes is used to collect and analyse both quantitative and qualitative discourse data. Three theories are adopted for this study: the Community of Practice (CoP), Conversational Analysis (CA) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). CoP proponents Eckert and McConnell-Ginet (1999) look at conversational styles in relation to language and gender research, as a move away from reliance on binary oppositions and global statements about the behaviour of all men and women, to more nuanced and mitigated statements about certain groups of men and women in particular circumstances. CA focuses distinctly on the organization and use of language while CDA on the other hand focuses on communicative features that play a role in the production of dominance by one group over another. It views language as a form of social practice that focuses on the ways social and political domination are reproduced by text and talk. The current study reveals that in as much as there are differences in the speech patterns and behaviour of men and women who speak Luhya language, other factors including age, status, economic prowess other than gender can determine the way one speaks on Mulembe FM call-in programmes and in general conversation. It is concluded that men are dominance oriented, more assertive and competitive in their speech while women were found supportive and cooperative but this is dependent on the context. It is recommended that future studies in language and gender must take into account the variety of contexts and other external factors. More studies need to be done in different contexts to examine gender behaviour on the discourse level. Such studies can include informal interactions between husbands and wives, casual conversations among same or cross sex friends, and forth.
