Male/Female Linguistic Practices and Miscommunication in the Community Of Chlef

Abstract

Male/female communication is of central importance to many aspects of human life and gender studies, yet it is only in recent years that is has become the focus of systematic scientific investigation. Males and females seem to encounter frequent problems of communication and their conversation typically falls prey to miscommunication. We intend in this research paper to direct a spot line on women and men in canvassing the phenomenon of miscommunication through sociolinguistic lens. The questionnaire in this paper is a number of questions which serve as a direct method of gathering what the significant social actors (men and women in this investigation) think about the misunderstanding that may plague their conversational interactions. The questionnaire is employed to scrutinize if assertiveness and the intention to take control of the conversation do not sit very lightly on women in Chlef (West of Algeria), as this is captured through our rapt listening to the recordings. The respondents' answers are emplyed either to underpin the hypotheses that read for the different cultures of women and men and the social power prescribed to men, or they can serve to reject those explanations propounded to understand male/female miscommunication in the community under study, Chlef.