Gender Bias in Language Aquisition

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Can parts of gender stereotype be biological? Can we link this to how children develop the ability to communicate and how they use it at a young age? There are many researchers discussing whether language acquisition between men and women are indeed different and many believe that its caused by gender bias among our society. The general concept is that we are not born with gender, but that gender is something we perform or learn to do. However, there is evidence to show that even at a young age, boys and girls that learn how to communicate, will learn at different speeds and will struggle with different aspects of learning how to communicate. This is generally soon after they learn how to identify different genders. From research, we are able to conclude that children are able to distinguish between differences in biological sex at around the age of 2. One study was able to prove this by showing different aged children photos of females and males, and at the age of around 2, the children were beginning to be able to identify the difference between male and female. This reveals that even little children are already aware of the idea that there are two genders. Therefore this seems to be the perfect place to investigate whether there is in fact a difference in how genders communicate. To maintain a clear aim, I am not suggesting there is one sex which is better than the other; I am just suggesting that the gender bias found in language could be biological. And if this is true, we should research into other areas of gender bias to see if it could also be linked to biology not gender stereotyping in society. This way we can create a better understanding of how gender traits and characteristics are formed. Although, it is currently popular to overemphasize the role of society in gender bias, the role of biological factors cannot be underestimated. Jesperson (in
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