The Disney Discussion Case
​(in English)

Under construction!
One of our prime target groups have been language teachers. Most teacher training programs for this group will include course modules in sociolinguistics, where gender and language normally constitutes one subject touched upon. The following case deals with aspects related to conversational styles, more specifically collaborative vs. competitive styles. The case was contextualised as a conversation over Skype (in order to motivate a reduction of sound quality needed to ‘camouflage’ some of the bi-effects of the pitch manipulations) between two researchers discussing an article about language and gender roles in Disney Princess movies. Respondents were asked to evaluate the language performance of one of the participants on variables that included ‘competitive features such as taking up floor space, interrupting, being contradictive, arguing forcefully, as well as more collaborative features such as signalling interest, being supportive, being sympathetic etc.    Note that all material is in English

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Working out the script
The script was worked out in collaboration with experts in 

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disney_script.pdf
File Size:	37 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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Recording and Morphing
Before recording the scripts, we first trialed a number of voices to see which responded best to voice morphing, 

Version A: Female professor

Version B: Male professor

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Presenting and Conducting the Case
This case was contextualised as an exercise in 

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Want to try?
If you want to try out the case with your own class use QR-code is link below for a ready package.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RKRTYL9

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Note! Contact mats.deutschmann@oru.se  if you want to do this with a group so that we can set up a specific group for you and give you access to the results.

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Link to post-survey. Please let participants answer this after the seminar discussion!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/R7N92JX

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Some Results from Previous Trials
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All in all we had 173 students participating in the trials. In Sweden. Groups have included language students, teacher trainees and active teachers.

​Figure 1. Swedish responses

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The stereotypes that emerged from the awareness raising activities in Sweden showed that there were tendencies for respondents who listened to the male version to give higher scores on conversational features associated with competitive conversational styles (taking space, interrupting, contradicting etc.), while respondents who listened to the female version tended to score higher on features associated with collaborative conversational styles (being supportive, signalling interest and not taking too much space). The results are summarised in Figure 1 above. It seems that respondents in particular focussed on, and noted, aspects that were associated with male behaviour when listening to the male version and vice versa.  ​

The trials from te Seychelles

​Figure 2. The results from the Seychelles showed...

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However, the differences in response patterns can be explained.

Figure 3. Linguistic gender stereotypes - Seychelles Sweden

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