Language and Gender in Peer Interactions among Children and Youth

• Published in: The Handbook of Language, Gender, and Sexuality pp. 509 - 528
• Main Authors: Goodwin, Marjorie Harness, Kyratzis, Amy
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, US John Wiley & Sons, Inc 28.03.2014
• Subjects: children; ethnography; identity; moral behavior; multilingualism; negotiation; peer group; social organization; talk‐in‐interaction; transnational and postcolonial societies
• ISBN: 0470656425; 9780470656426
• DOI: 10.1002/9781118584248.ch26

Only recently have anthropologists and sociologists studied children as subjects, actors, and creators of culture. This chapter outlines how investigations into gendered language in peer groups have changed with shifting paradigms and methodological approaches. We begin by reviewing the more traditional approach to studies of gender construction, the separate worlds hypothesis, and then discuss challenges that came from perspectives on language and gender that view identity as fluid, situated, and localized within communities of practice. We next review studies of children's moral and identity work in peer group interactions. A synthesis across studies demonstrates considerable linguistic heterogeneity both within and across girls' and boys' groups. Within transnational and postcolonial settings race, language choice, social class, and ethnicity as well as gender impact the negotiation of power asymmetries and identities in the local peer group.