Gender Differences in Language Learning and the Implications for EFL Teaching

仇荷花

1. Introduction

“Men and women almost seem to be from different planets， speaking different languages and needing different nourishment.”（John Gray2004） Remember that the title of John Grays book， Men Are from Mars， Women Are from Venus is a metaphor or conceit - we dont really come from different planets. Though men and women share a common social space or environment， they are different in many aspects.Gender difference is one of the important factors which affect language learning. For many years ，English teachers have such kind of feeling that girls are better than boys in English study. According to some boys in China，no matter how hard they try in learning English， it seems that they can't learn English well. With the purpose of discovering the causes of this problem and searching for some useful implications for the classroom teaching， I take on gender differences in language learning as my literature review topic.

2. Gender Differences in Affective Aspect of Language Learning

Researches on language learning attitudes， motivation， beliefs from the gender perspective are of particular significance to this paper. Among such academic inquiries are Boynton and Haitema （2007）， Mori and Gobel's （2006）， Nikitina and Furuoka （2007） studies. Boynton and Haitema （2007） investigated student attitudes toward early foreign language learning of a total number of 52，227 children in 2 elementary school systems in North Carolina over a 10-year period. Either French or Spanish was studied by the children as a foreign language. The results indicated that both boys and girls had positive attitudes toward foreign language classes and teachers. When asked the desire to continue with the foreign language study in the next grade， female students showed a positive incline， while male students were neutral.

Using two famous motivational models， which are Expectancy-value Theory and Gardner's Socio-educational Model， Mori and Gobel （2006） sought to explore the differences in motivational sub-constructs from the gender perspective. The participants were 453 second-year non-English major students in a Japanese university. In analyzing the data， there was a multidimensional construct consists of many factors such as integrativeness， intrinsic value， motivation， as well as attainment value. The results revealed significant gender differences in integrativeness， with the female students scoring much higher compared to the males.

3. Gender difference in sensory preference

Visual students prefer to learn by seeing. Therefore they like to read a lot，which requires concentration and time spent alone. Visual students need the visual stimulation of bulletin boards， videos， and movies. They must have written directions if they are to function well in the classroom. Statistics show that 50% of an 80% of the learners are visual learners； there is no significant gender difference.

A learning style preference characterized by tactile and kinesthetic way might be related to the spatial ability prominent in the masculine gender role. Because males do seem to have an edge in some spatial learning tasks， language teachers might expect that their tactile and kinesthetic students would more often be males than females. It is also possible to predict that nontraditional females （women who have chosen to follow gender–role patterns different from the traditional norm） would show these preferences more frequently than traditional females.

4. Gender difference in cognitive preference

Gender difference has often been found for field–independence/field– dependence through many different measures： tests of perception in titled rooms， embedded figures tests， and rod–and–frame tests. As adolescents and adults—and sometimes even children—males are usually more field–independent and females are more field dependent. Field– independent learners， often males， have advantages in language achievement （Hansen & Stansfield， 1981）， but this might be related to the analytic nature of most written language achievement tests and many grammar–based （analytic） language learning strategies， such as deductive reasoning （Oxford & Lavine， 1991）.

Field–sensitive individuals， often females， with their more interpersonal and global orientation， might do better in less analytic aspects of overall communicative competence， such as sociolinguistic competence， discourse competence， and strategic competence， but more evidence is needed on this point. Global， field–dependent learners choose nonanalytic strategies that involve searching for the main idea and intuitively guessing from multiple contextual clues—frequently social ones—when some pieces of information are missing （Oxford & Lavine， 1991）.

When gender difference in reflection and impulsivity are found in children and adolescents， females are usually more reflective and males are more impulsive.In the language classroom， the reflective learner （often a female） considers different angles and the social context before responding and is devoted to answering correctly. The impulsive learner （frequently a male） jumps in with a quick response and may want to dominate， regardless of the correctness of the response.

Belenky and colleagues（1986）conducted extensive interviews with college men and women. In general， the two genders have different ways of knowing， men more often through“objectivity and thinking”（abstract analysis） and women more often through subjectivity and feeling （personal experience）. Therefore a majority of women have more of a feeling approach （emotional， personal， subjective， empathic， merciful） than a thinking approach （analytic， impersonal， objective， factual， just）. In general， males and females employ different routes in language learning. More males than females might take the thinking approach， thus focusing on rules， facts， and logic and avoiding the more personal interactions. More females than males might like the feeling approach， in which there is a great deal of social interaction， a high degree of empathy， and cooperative learning.

5. Implications for ESL/EFL Classroom Teaching

Teachers should be aware of the differences among our students， but do not overestimate it， because in different educational setting， it may exist and be prominent， or may not at all. （Nikitina and Furuoka， 2007）. Language teachers need to make every effort to create an inclusive classroom atmosphere for all the students in spite of the gender， and at the same time， to prepare interesting and thought -provoking activities and materials for both the male and female students. Only when the teachers know and understand the students' beliefs about language learning， can they promote to have enthusiastic and keen audience in the classroom.

Only if teachers fully take learnersgender differences into account， and be sensitive to individual differences and gender differences and overcome the bias on gender groups in English language learning they can choose appropriate teaching methods， teach students in accordance with their aptitude or sex and make negative factors become into positive ones. Teachers should try reminding students of the gender factors in the learner's learning process， thus enable them to overcome their own weaknesses， play their strengths and try some better study strategies. According to gender differences， teachers can give more targeted guidance to help students form an effective study strategy and at the same time， change the way students learn and train them to study independently.

Firstly， we should train boys to study English independently. Teachers must take cognitive differences of male and female students into account， so that girls can make best use of the advantages and bypass the disadvantages. Such as girls are good at mechanical memory and incline to depend on teachers， which requires teachers to develop their memory based on understanding， to make them form the habit of analyzing problems comprehensively and to train them to think independently.

Secondly， teachers should improve the relationship with girls. In the process of teacher- student exchanges， teachers can cultivate studentslearning behavior and studentsbeliefs can be enhanced. Some differences of male and female students are also continuously formed and manifested in such contacts. Therefore， teachers must change the unequal“sex differences”contacts. Especially when solve some difficult problems Teachers should ask girls more questions to show the teacherstrust. It is also necessary to encourage girls to enable them to experience the joy of success.

Thirdly， teachers should teach students to have a correct understanding of gender difference in learning. Teachers should help students find out reasons for which they have more difficulty in learning English and give them popper guide to promote their study. At the same time they should make students have a correct understanding that gender differences do exist in English study， but only in certain areas there are some differences. We cannot say that girls are superior to boys in every aspect of English study， and certainly not girls always do better than boys. Both boys and girls should be aware of their own and the opposite sex's strengths， advantages and potential， but also have a correct understanding of their own and the opposite sex's shortcomings and insufficient. So that they can learn from others' strong points and to offset one's weaknesses， and finally achieve cooperative learning.

References：

[1]John Gray.Men Are from Mars，Women Are from Venus.Harper Paperbacks，2004.

[2]Boynton A L H，Haitema T.A Ten -Year Chronicle of Student Attitudes Toward Foreign Language in the Elementary School.

[3]Mori S，Gobel P.Motivation and gender in the Japanese EFL classroom[J].System，2006（34）：194-210.

[4]Nikitina L，Furuoka F.Language Classroom： A “Girls' Domain”？ Female and Male Students' Perspectives on Language Learning[R].MICOLLAC，2007.

[5]Eisenstein，M.（1982）.A study of social variation in adult second language acquisition.Language Learning，32（4），367- 391.

[6]O xford，R.L.& Nyikos，M.（1989）.Variables affecting choice of language learning strategies in the multicultural，tertiary L2 classroom.System，20（3）.

[7]Hansen，J.& Stansfield，C.W.（1982）.Student- teacher cognitive styles and foreign language achievement： A preliminary study.Modern Language Journal，66，263- 273.