To the behaviorist, competence in the rules of language is not as important as the ability to speak it; speaking is what makes language real. Knowledge is a mental state and the structure of a language doesn t make it a language; it is the function of speaking words that makes a language a language.
Conversation is a form of interactive, spontaneous communication between two or more people. Typically it occurs in spoken communication, as written exchanges are usually not referred to as conversations. The development of conversational skills and etiquette is an important part of socialization.
Deborah Tannen: Men and Women in Conversation is Cross-Cultural Communication. In You Just Don't Understand: Men and Women in Conversation, Deborah Tannen -- a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University -- addresses linguistic differences as they relate to intimate male/female relations. As a student of Robin Lakoff she had been introduced to Lakoff's research on gender and language.