Gender Difference Of Language In Doctor-Patient Dialogue-A Rapport Management Perspective

Doctor-patient relationship has become a hot topic in recent years.Doctor-patient dialogue plays an important role in building doctor-patient relationship.In the thesis,quantitative and qualitative methods are used to analyze the data collected at two hospitals in Anhui Province.The subjects include two male doctors and two female doctors,as well as 27 patients,with a total of 20 dialogues.Spencer-Oatey’s rapport management model is employed to analyze the gender difference of language in medical consultation.The study has found that there are significant gender differences in starting and closing a conversation as well as interruptions/overlaps:(1)Most conversations were initiated by doctors.While male doctors preferred to initiate the conversation by addressing the patient and inquiring about the health condition,female doctors often asked the patient to sit first and avoided calling the patient by his/her name.In patient-initiated conversations,male patients make up the majority.(2)In terms of overlaps and interruptions,the vast majority of them are initiated by doctors.While the doctors’ interruptions do not change the topic,the patient often interrupted to gain topic control.It’s worth noting that doctors and patients exhibit divergent gender differences.Male doctors interrupted more than female doctors,but the situation was the opposite in the patient side.(3)Most conversations ended with the doctor’s advice and the patient’s thanks.However,in one particular case,when the female patient repeatedly interrupted to express her concerns,the male doctor ignored the woman’s words and talked to others instead.The author explains the above findings from the aspects of activity type,social /interactional roles,power and rapport orientation.Medical consultation in China,as an institutional discourse,has its own complexity--doctors have expert power over patients,but they are also the provider of services.Patients need the knowledge of the doctors,but they may feel they have paid to get medical services.These differences may not only be a result of social and cultural influences,but also a result of different perceptions of one’s role.To have a harmonious doctor-patient relationship,we need to seek balance in this complexity of relationship.