Genderlects: Girl Talk and Boy Talk in a Middle-Years Classroom

Explores the gendered nature of talk in one multicultural, eighth-grade classroom, discussing how talk is an integral part of engendering. Looks at how the genderlects “Boy Talk” and “Girl Talk” contributed to classroom inequities. Offers suggestions to teachers for ways to validate and utilize the girls’ discourse practices to their advantage, rather than detriment, in gender-balanced language arts classrooms.