gender | ESL Conversation Lessons

Books have been written about it, alcohol-based dinners never go without it, and more recently, we are digging into what defines it. Put simply, what are the differences between men and women? This TED talk by biologist Karissa Sanbonmatsu really got my attention. First of all because she presents some of the new discoveries from epigenetics and research in DNA that explain the differences between men and women from a biological perspective. Gotta love science. This lesson is filled with tons of scientific vocabulary to describe how DNA works to create gender differences.

However, here is the twist, Sanbonmatsu, a transgender scientist, also talks about the challenges she faced through her struggle with her own identity. This content is layered and complex. On one hand the objective is to help science-based students become more verbal with DNA related vocabulary–an important corner stone topic for biologists. But beyond that, the speaker pulls in the social challenges of the “old boys club” that exists in the scientific community as well as the very misunderstood transgenderism.

Pre discussion

What are some of the theories you have heard about the differences between men and women?
Do you think there are differences?
What does it mean to be transgender?

The Video: The Biology of Gender

There are really two aspects in this video mashed up together. 1) Sanbonmatsu shares the science of gender. 2) Sanbonmatsu talks about the reactions of her scientific community towards transgenderism.

I would first untangle each aspect.

What does the latest research tell us about gender?
What is the behaviour of our DNA?
How is Sanbonmatsu contributing to a society of tolerance inclusion?
Why does Sanbonmatsu expose the scientific community as being especially hard on her choices?
Do you think there are other social circles where transgenderism is more difficult?
What about less difficult?

I leave you with that for the weekend…have a good one.

Mel

Level: B2, C1, C2
Handout: TPT 0.99$

Language focus: comparisons, hypotheticals
Media: video

Now that is a loaded question if I ever did blog one. Admittedly gender difference always creates discussion. But not always the discussions I like to facilitate. In fact, I usually stay away from overly simplistic comparisons, especially when they pit the two most basic attributes of humanity. However, when I watched Reshma Saujani’s TED talk, I instantly wanted to talk about it.

Can it be true? And what if it is?

Saujani hammers a societal observation that had me searching all my memories as a young girl. Do we teach our boys to be brave and our girls to be perfect? And the follow-up question: how has this shaped our society? Said differently, how has this impacted our job market, our political paradigms, technological progress, social and familial priorities…the list goes on.

CTRL Z please!

Saunjani strikes a particularly sensitive chord when she describes some of the anecdotes from her coding school for girls. She describes a girl sitting in front of her blank coding screen, feeling like she is just not good enough to compose code that will work. But when you do CTRLZ (undo) to go back a few keystrokes, she finds pages full of code that was deleted that simply “wasn’t good enough”.