| Considering that there is a considerable number of misunderstandings or even miscommunication caused by sexism in language in various fields of life, this paper provides a detailed study of sexism in English.The paper consists of eight parts. The first part is a general introduction aiming to clarify the purpose and significance of the research, to let know the rough idea and motive of this writing.The second part is a clear differentiation to two terms: sex and gender.The third part extends some relevant theories about the study of sexism in English, which includes deficit theory, dominance theory, difference theory, and politeness theory.The fourth part comes to the elaboration of sexist language and non-sexist language. Firstly, "can a language be sexist?" and "how is English sexist?" are thoroughly explained. Then comes to the definitions of sexist language and non-sexist language. Finally, some techniques on how to avoid sexist language are discussed.The fifth part is to elaborate the different conversational styles of the genders. Namely, men's conversational style and women's conversational style. The paper first explains women and men talk differently on the aspects of gender differences in speech and gender differences in language use. Then comes to men's conversational style and women's conversational style.The sixth part is for the factors leading to sexism in English. The writer categorizes them as: social status and power, physiological factors, and psychological factors.As the creative part of the paper, the seventh goes to the influences of the study of sexism in English on the English language teaching and learning.The last part is a conclusion of the paper. |
