Article published In: Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 28:1 (2005) ► pp.1–18
“Tell me the goss ok”
Urban Indigenous girls (re)constructing norms, values and identities through email at school
Published online: 1 January 2005
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.28.1.01gro
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.28.1.01gro
Abstract
Gossip has mainly been investigated as an oral discourse practice, one that serves as a mechanism to reaffirm relationships and to construct, monitor and maintain social norms and values within communities. This study investigates how a group of Aboriginal English speaking teenage girls constructed norms, values and identities in their email gossip. Adopting a communities of practice perspective and a social constructionist understanding of identity, the study draws on ethnographic data collected on the writing practices of a group of Indigenous girls in a high school program for educationally ‘at risk’ students. The findings indicate that the girls used email gossip to do friendship while constructing multifaceted identities and negotiating social norms and values relating to four themes: 1) the social practices of girls in friendship circles; 2) the physical attributes, characters and social practices of boys; 3) the relationships between girls and boys; and 4) risk-taking practices. By creating spaces in the curriculum for email writing (and gossip), teachers can make school a more personally meaningful place for ‘disaffected’ students. It can also enhance students’ writing, computer and analytical skills and raise their language awareness with respect to constructing identities needed to participate in the workplace and wider community.
References (42)
Bucholz, M., Liang, A. C. & Sutton, L. A. (Eds.) (1999). Reinventing identities: the gendered self in discourse. New York: Oxford University Press.
Cameron, D. (1997). Performing gender identity: young men’s talk and the construction of heterosexual masculinity. In S. Johnson & U. H. Meinhof (Eds.) Language and masculinity (pp. 47–64). Oxford: Blackwell.
Chafe, W. L. (1985). Linguistic differences produced by differences between speaking and writing. In D. Olson, W. Torrance & A. Hildeyard (Eds.) Literacy, language and learning: the nature and consequences of reading and writing (pp. 105–123). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cherland, M. R. (1994). Private practices: girls reading fiction and constructing identity. London: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
Coates, J. (1988). Gossip revisited: language in all-female groups. In J. Coates & D. Cameron (Eds.) Women in their speech communities: new perspectives on language and sex (pp. 94–121). London: Longman.
(1999). Changing femininities: the talk of teenage girls. In A. Bucholtz, A. C. Liang & L. A. Sutton (Eds.) Reinventing identities: the gendered self in discourse (pp. 123–144). New York: Oxford University Press.
Dobkins, R. J. (1999). Strong language, strong actions: Native American women writing against federal authority. In M. Bucholtz, A. C. Liang & L. A. Sutton (Eds.), Reinventing identities: the gendered self in discourse (pp. 181–199). New York: Oxford University Press.
Eckert, P. (2003). Language and gender in adolescence. In J. Holmes & M. Mey-erhoff (Eds.), The handbook of language and gender (pp. 381–400). Maiden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Eckert, P. & McConnell-Ginet, S. (1992). Think practically and look locally: language and gender as community-based practice. Annual Review of Anthropology, 211, 461–490.
Eder, D. (1991). The role of teasing in adolescent peer culture. In S. Cahill (Ed.) Sociological studies of child development (Vol. 41, pp. 181–197). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Education Department of Western Australia (1996). Monitoring standards in education. Perth, WA: Education Department of WA.
Everhart, R. B. (1983). Reading, writing and resistance: adolescence and labor in a junior high school. Boston: Routeledge & Kegan Paul.
Goodwin, M. H. (1999). Constructing opposition within girls’ games. In M. Bucholtz, A. C. Liang & L. A. Sutton (Eds.) Reinventing identities: the gendered self in discourse (pp. 348–368). New York: Oxford University Press.
Grote, E. (2004). An ethnography of writing: the writing practices of female Australian Indigenous adolescents at school. Unpublished doctoral thesis, Edith Cowan University, Mount Lawley, WA.
Hines, C. (1999). Rebaking the pie. In M. Bucholtz, A. C. Liang & L. A. Sutton (Eds.) Reinventing identities: the gendered self in discourse (pp. 145–162). New York: Oxford University Press.
Ivanic, R. (1998). Writing and identity: the discoursal construction of identity in academic writing. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Johnson, F. L. & Aries, E. J. (1998). The talk of women friends. In J. Coates (Ed.) Language and gender: a reader (pp. 211–215). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Jones, D. (1980). Gossip: notes on women’s oral culture. In C. Kramarae (Ed.) The voices and words of women and men (pp. 193–198). Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Kaldor, S., & Malcolm, I. G. (1991). Aboriginal English – an overview. In S. Romaine (Ed.) Language in Australia (pp. 67–83). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Malcolm, I. G., Haig, Y., Königsberg, P., Rochecouste, J., Collard, G., Hill, A. & Cahill, R. (1999). Towards more user-friendly education for speakers of Aboriginal English. Perth: Centre for Applied Language and Literacy Research, Edith Cowan University and Education Department of Western Australia.
Mendoza-Denton, N. (1999). Turn-initial no: collaborative opposition among Latina adolescents. In M. Bucholtz, A. C. Liang & L. A. Sutton (Eds.) Reinventing identities: the gendered self in discourse (pp. 273–292). New York: Oxford University Press.
Morgan, M. (1999). No woman, no cry: claiming African American woman’s place. In M. Bucholtz, A. C. Laing & L. A. Sutton (Eds.) Reinventing identities: the gendered self in discourse (pp. 27–45). New York: Oxford University Press.
Nordenstam, K. (1996). Gossip and gender in a Swedish context. Working Papers on Language, Gender and Sexism, 6(2), 79–93.
Ochs, E., Taylor, C., Rudolph, D. & Smith, R. (1992). Storytelling as a theory-building activity. Discourse Processes, 151, 37–72.
Pavlenko, A. & Blackledge, A. (Eds.) (2004). Negotiation of identities in multilingual contexts. Clevendon, England: Multilingual Matters, Ltd.
Smitherman, G. (1994). Black talk: words and phrases from the hood to the amen corner. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Spindler, G. (1963). The transmission of American culture. In G. Spindler (Ed.) Education and culture: anthropological approaches (pp. 148–172). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Sunderland, J. & Litosseliti, L. (2002). Gender identity and discourse analysis: theoretical and empirical considerations. In L. Litosseliti & J. Sunderland (Eds.) Gender identity and discourse analysis (pp. 3–39). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Tebbutt, M. (1995). Women’s talk? A social history of ‘gossip’ in working-class neighbourhoods, 1880–1960. Hants, England: Scolar Press.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Cited by (6)
Cited by six other publications
Oliver, Rhonda & Carly Steele
2025. Applied Linguistics in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contexts (1977–2026). Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
González Ybarra, Mónica & Grace D. Player
Coles, Laetitia, Melissa Johnstone, Cassandra Pattinson, Karen Thorpe, Olivia Van Halen, Zhaoxi Zheng, Olivia Bayliss, Nicole Lakeman, Mark Western, Jenny Povey & Sally Staton
Eckhaus, Eyal & Batia Ben-Hador
Miczo, Nathan, Theresa Mariani & Crystal Donahue
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.