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THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT! 
LANGUAGE, CULTURE, AND MEANING

WITH BONUS DVD "DEBORAH TANNEN: 1 ON 1"

To stream this video, please visit Kanopy.

HE SAID, SHE SAID: GENDER, LANGUAGE, AND COMMUNICATION

With Bonus DVD "Deborah Tannen: In Depth"

To stream this video, please visit Kanopy.

That's Not What I Meant! Language, Culture, and Meaning is a 55-minute video presentation of a lecture to a university audience in which Deborah Tannen explains and illustrates her linguistic approach to understanding how we use language in everyday conversation to create meaning and negotiate relationships — and why communication sometimes goes awry.

Drawing on research from sociology, psychology and anthropology in addition to her own, Tannen paints a fascinating picture of how our everyday interactions are structured, how linguistic signals work in conversation, and how they may be misinterpreted. In her lively, engaging, and entertaining presentation, she uses real-life examples to define and describe the linguistic features that make up conversational style, and illustrates what can happen when speaking to someone whose style differs. She proposes that understanding conversational styles can lift the burden of pathology and provide tools for changing ways of speaking to improve communication and therefore relationships.

He Said, She Said: Gender Language, and Communication is a 50-minute video presentation of a lecture to a university audience in which Deborah Tannen explains and illustrates her linguistic approach to understanding conversations between women and men. She describes and illustrates ways of speaking that tend to characterize and sometimes distinguish men and women, as well as the consequences of those differences (and similarities) in everyday conversation and hence relationships. Including video clips of children at play and talking to their best friends, Tannen traces these patterns to conversational styles learned as children growing up. In a lively and engaging lecture style, she demonstrates that understanding the patterns seen seen among children at play can help explain frustrations that arise in adult conversations. This program is produced, edited, and paced for classroom use in linguistics, psychology, sociology, women's studies, and other social sciences. Includes an Instructor's Package outlining the lecture, suggesting exercises and discussion points, and reproducing two essays in which Tannen delves more deeply into the topic. 

Deborah Tannen: 1 on 1 is a 25-minute companion video to That’s Not What I Meant! in which Tannen delves more deeply into key issues and answers frequent questions, including:

  • Why is this linguistics?  How is it different from psychology?

  • Presentational rituals & avoidance rituals

  • What are contextualization cues and why do they matter?

  • Methodology

  • Metamessages & framing

  • Why focus on misunderstanding?

Deborah Tannen: In Depth is a 25-minute companion video to He Said, She Said. Using a conversational rather than lecture format, Tannen addresses key issues, implications, and criticisms about He Said, She Said, including: 

  • Is it nature or nurture? Are conversational styles in-born or learned (or both)?

  • Is gender the most important factor affecting conversational interaction?

  • Are these patterns cross-cultural?

  • What about power and dominance?

  • How does a linguistic approach compare to psychology?