Gender In Language Learning Essay

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Gender is an issue with important theoretical and pedagogical assumption in second language learning. A great number of studies mentioned that gender can have an important effect on how students learn a language. A large number of researches worked on topics about gender, including language learning ability, motivation, teacher perceptions, learning styles and strategies, classroom interaction, teaching materials, testing and pedagogies. Many studies that tested gender as a variable in the use of language learning strategies said that significant gender differences almost always are the same, and they show greater use of LLS by females (see for instance, Green & Oxford, 1995; Noguchi,1991). (Politzer, 1983) argued that females used social LS …show more content…

The research findings indicate that women more frequently use memory, cognitive and social strategies. Oxford and Nyikos (1989) examined the use of learning strategies on a sample of 1200 adult French, Spanish, Italian and German language learners and demonstrated that gender plays a decisive role in the selection of strategies. The research results show that women tend to deploy all kinds of strategies more frequently, which corresponds to the results of previous researches on the role of gender in foreign language learning. These findings were also replicated in the research conducted by Ehrman and Oxford (1989) on a sample of 78 adult learners, including students and professors at the faculties of philological studies. The languages covered by the research included Indonesian, Turkish, Italian, Hungarian and Arabic. In accordance with the previous research, gender differences in the use of strategies were revealed. It was shown that female respondents used general learning strategies more often, and authentic strategies, strategies of getting and communicating meaning, as well as self-direction strategies were more frequently deployed by female …show more content…

Kaylani (1996) has indicated that male students differ from their female counterparts in the extent of strategy use. She has found that female students use memory, cognitive, compensation and affective strategies more frequently than male students and thus the correlation between gender and language proficiency has been established. Dongyue (2004) carried out quite an interesting research on the correlation between language proficiency, gender and strategy use. The research results mention that there are statistically significant gender differences in memory, affective and overall strategy use in favor of females. The results indicate that females are better at managing and controlling their emotions than their male counterparts. The author also mentions that the difference in the frequency of strategy use between men and women may be affected by other variables such as ethnic background, cultural background and language learning environment. Then we should consider a lot of aspects when we are choosing not only competitive approach but also applying the best interactional approaches as collaborative and

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