Gender difference is a popular research topic for many disciplines.It has also aroused the interest of an increasing number of linguists.This article attempts to explore one of the aspects of gender difference in language,that is,discourse styles of male and female in speech communication and adopts two approaches—the dominance approach and the difference approach,proposed by some researchers to explain different discourse styles of men and women and show its socio-cultural reasons in order to enhance people’s understanding of the relationship between language and gender. Gender difference is a popular research topic for many disciplines. It has also aroused the interest of an increasing number of linguists. This article attempts to explore one of the aspects of gender difference in language, that is, discourse styles of male and female in speech. communication and adoption two approaches-the dominance approach and the difference approach, proposed by some researchers to explain different discourse styles of men and women and show its socio-cultural reasons in order to enhance people’s understanding of the relationship between language and gender.