二语习得中的性别差异

Introduction

Second language acquisition is quite different from the acquisition of our mother tongue. There are many factors related to the learner’s marks of the second language. Among those factors, gender plays an important role for students to master the second language. Ellis’s individual differences research framework covers learner’s attitude, age, gender, learning motivation, cognitive style, learning strategy and so on. That is to say, the acquired behavior is also different between men and women.

At the beginning of the 19th century, linguists have found that there are several obvious differences in English using between men and women. C. Burstall (1975) did a research among 6000 primary school students who were 8 years old. The research was aimed at the difference of primary students’second language acquisition ability. The result showed all the girls’scores were higher than boys’. Birenhaum and Kreamer (1992) claimed that women have a high sense in language ability. Wu Yi'an (2000) also found that for English majors, girls’English scores are better than boys’. But Scareella and Zimmerman (1998) proved that boys do better than girls in vocabulary and reading. In a word, researchers have different view about the relationship between gender difference and language learning.

The purpose of the paper is to analyze the relationship between learners’gender difference and English learning. According to the analysis of the second language acquisition and gender differences, to discuss the ways to providing the chance to everyone to learning English well.

At the very beginning of this paper, it is a brief introduction of second language acquisition and a literature review about some famous persons’ideas on the relationship between gender difference and second language acquisition. Then, it is an introduction of a research about the issue in the latter two parts. The analysis of the research consists of gender differences embodied in the second language acquisition and the second language teaching. The fourth part focuses on the inspiration of the analysis and put forward some useful suggestion for people to improving their English learning.

1.Literature review

Second language acquisition refers to the systematic study of how one person acquires a second language subsequent to his native language. The process of second language is influenced by many factors, such as external reasons and internal reasons. Specifically, these reasons are age, gender, motivation, affective factors, intelligence and aptitude.

The differences between language and gender have been noticed for many years. In 1975, Robin Lakeoff pointed out his idea of the relationship between language and gender in Language and Woman’s Place. He thought male and female’s conversational modes are different. The different modes lead to different social positions. Daniel Maltz & Ruth Borker (1982: 196-216) believed male and female living in different subcultures. The subculture comes form different social positions and racial backgrounds. It is the reason of the difference in different utterances between female and male. Leonard Bloomfield (1993) listed the phenomena which he got by some researches among Yana Indian, which showed that different genders would describe the same thing using different words. Maccoby & Jachlin (1974) put forward that gender difference developed step by step. Female’s advantage in language learning is not so strong. At the age of three to eight, language development is similar for boys and girls. But as they reaching at nine years old, girls would do better than boys in language learning. Boyle (1987) did a research among 490 Chinese

college students in HongKong (233 girls and 257boys). The research focused on the ability of the second language acquisition. Form the result, he found that girls’ marks are higher than boys’.

But there are other results which showed that the relationship between gender and second language acquisition ability is not a positive correlation. For example, Bacan (1992: 78-160) found that when boys and girls did a listening, their marks were similar.

This paper aims to analyze the gender differences embodied in second language acquisition and second language teaching. And put up with some useful suggestions according to those differences.

2. Methodology

In order to explore the gender differences in second language acquisition, I did a research about the relationship between English learning and gender differences in Yan’an University.

2.1 Subject

The research is conducted among 100 undergraduates in Yan’an University, which include 50 boys and 50 girls.

2.2 Tool

In order to analyze the relationship between gender differences and English learning, I designed a questionnaire. The questionnaire focuses on all the undergraduates in Yan’an University, except English majors.

There are twenty-eight questions in this questionnaire. Eleven of them focus on

the possible reasons of gender differences and language learning.

2.3 Procedures

After the questionnaires designed, they were handed out to 50 boys and 50 girls in the library of Yan’an University.

There were only 88 questionnaires handed in after 20 minutes, which including 43 girls and 45 boys.

The process of analyzing the information:

First, classifying the same type questions which focus on the same aspect.

Second, aparting boys’ questionnaires from those of girls.

Third, sorting out their answers’ proportion of each item of each question.

Final, comparing the two genders’ proportion of each item of each question. 3. Analysis and results

This part is used to analysis two genders’ differences in English learning and studies the possible reasons of the differences between female and male.

Before the specific analyze of the two genders’ differences in English learning, there are several questions about the English learning level of Yan’an University students.

Questions 1 to 3 are the related questions of the English level test:

Q1: How do you think of your English?

A Satisfied

B So-so

C Unsatisfied

Q2: Do you think learning English is hard for you or not?

A Easy

B So-so

C Hard

Q3: Among the following aspects, which one (ones) makes it hard for you to learn English?

A V ocabulary

B Grammar

C Background knowledge

For the first question, boys’ answers are similar to girls’. More than 45% boys choose “So-so”, 30% boys choose “satisfied”. More than 42% girls choose “So-so”, 28% girls choose “satisfied”.

For the second question, 55% boys think it is hard for him while 44% girls choose the same item. As the result shows, both girls and boys think English learning is not an easy thing.

For the last one, most boys and girls think vocabulary is the obstacle on their way to learning English. But for the item B, more boys choose it than girls. They think they can not understand the grammar rules and use them well.

After the English level test, the next two parts are the analysis of the relationship between the gender differences and second language acquisition. Because the process of the second language acquisition influenced by internal reasons and external reasons. The next two parts including the students’own factors to learning the second language and teachers’factors in language teaching.

3.1 Gender differences embodied in second language acquisition

The concept of the second language acquisition has been introduced at the very beginning of the paper. This part would divide into four aspects to analyze the differences of different genders when they learning English.

3.1.1 Differences in attitude and interest

Generally speaking, students’attitudes and interests are the subjective reasons. There attitudes and interests have an obviously effects on what they are learning. Thus, both the two reasons would reflect the relationship between the different genders’subjective performance and English learning.

Then, the two aspects would be analyzed separately：

First, learning attitude has close relationship with the learning result of any subject, especially for the second language acquisition.

C. Burstall did some researches about the English learning attitude and the learning result. He found that successful learners would form a positive attitude to English learning. Meanwhile, the positive attitude will have a promoting effect on English learning. On the contrary, learners who got a bad result in English learning would hold a negative attitude to learning and the negative attitude would lead to failure again. That would be a vicious cycle. Thus, positive learning attitude would promote learning result while good learning result would lead to positive learning attitude.

Second, as the saying goes, interest is the best teacher for learners. Interest is also an important factor in second language acquisition.

Interest is a kind of psychological tendency to study something. Learning interest means learners make every effort to acquire some knowledge. Interest is restricted by historical conditions. People in different times or social positions hold different opinion about what they are interested in.

In order to explore the relationship between different genders’attitudes and interests with English learning, question 4 to question 7 in the questionnaire are about this part.

Q4: What is your attitude to English learning?

A Like

B So-so

C Hate

Among those questionnaires, 35% girls choose the item “L ike” while 16% boys choose the same item. From the result, we can see that more girls have positive attitude toward English.

Q5: How many hours do you often spend on in English learning after classes?

A less than 5 hours

B about 5 hours

C more than 5 hours

Among those answers, most boys chose “less than 5 hours”, but more than 55% girls chose “more than 5 hours". That is to say, girls would l ike pay more time on English learning.

Q6: If English has nothing with diploma and job, whether you will learn English hard or not?

A Yes.

B No.

C I don’t know.

For this question, 51% boys choose the item “yes” while 61% girls choose the same item. That is to say, for most boys or girls, they have enthusiasm to English, but they don not like learn it with requirement.

Question 7 is used to study students’interests to English.

Q7: Why do you learn English?

A I want to get a certificate.

B It is a compulsory course.

C I want to go abroad.

D I am interested in English.

E I don't know, but I should learn it.

About 53% girls think they are interested in English while 30% boys choose the same answer. Most boys choose the last item. But 25% girls and 26% boys choose the last item, they don't know why to learning English, but they should do.

3.1.2 Difference in language learning strategies

Learning strategy refers to the effective learning processes, rules, methods, skills and regulations for the learners. In China, the research on learning strategies began from the 1970s. For over thirty years, many researchers on foreign language teaching think that the effective use of English learning strategy plays a driving role in the improvemen t of learners’learning ability and their performance. After the 1980s, there is an upsurge of researches on language learning strategies both motherland and abroad, and the research has been developing in depth.

Oxford classified learning strategy to two kinds: direct strategy and indirect strategy. Direct strategy contains cognitive strategies, compensation strategies and memory strategies. Indirect strategy contains affective strategies, social strategies and meta cognitive strategies. Green & Oxford held that female is more frequently than male in using the learning strategy. In addition, Bacon & Finneman also got the same

conclusion after some researches. They found girls and those students who study foreign language harder are good at using learning strategies.

In this paper, paralanguage would be an example of the learning strategies to analyze the gender differences in learning strategies using.

Paralanguage is also named body language. It is a kind of ways of expression, which includes facial expressions, gestures and movements, except language. For example, the speaker’s laughter, breath cough and intentional cough, pause. Those expression means are not follow as the general vocabulary or grammar rules.

The differences in paralanguage contain two aspects: the perception and the usage.

For the perception of paralanguage, girls’reflection is more obvious in class. They can understand teacher’s every twinkle and smile. For instance, teachers may change their facial expressions or intonation to attract students’attention in class, in this case, girls would be easier to follow the changes and pay more attention to what teachers say.

For the usage of paralanguage, girls are more skillful in expressing their thinking by paralanguage in the class. For example, most girls would give signs to teachers to show their thinking, but boys would be more likely to speak out their thinking.

There are three questions in the questionnaire about the gender differences in language learning strategies.

Q8: How often are you aware of the teachers’facial expressions or intonation?

A Always

B Often

C Sometimes

D Seldom

E Never.

As the survey shows, about 65% girls choose the item “Always” while 23% boys choose the same item. But 54% boys choose “Sometimes”. From the information, we can see that girls are more sensitive to the use of paralanguage.

Q9: Which method do you often use when memorizing words?

A mechanical memory

B associative memory

C comprehensive memory

For this question, most boys and girls choose they like memorizing new words by understanding. Only 15% girls and 18% boys choose “mechanical memory”.

Q10: During writing and translating process, if you cannot spell a word, what would you do?

A Look up the right words in the dictionary and finish the sentence.

B Choose a similar word to express the sentence.

For this question, both girls and boys are like “choose a similar word to express the sentence”.

3.1.3 Difference in personalities

In China, people’s education ideas are influenced by traditional concept. When a person was born, people around him have attached a label on him. This happened before the child realizes who is. The society and tradition lead the boy and girl growing up in different ways and help them from the identity and personality that they are expected to have. Boys are asked to be brave, dependent, but girls are supposed to

be kind and tender. Boys are encouraged to do their best to make a huge success in their undertaking while most girls are not so highly required to achieve success in her undertaking. Due to the social expectations, female and male have different personalities.

Personality’s differences also have a marked effect on second language acquisition. In English learning, girls are more patient in the complex grammar. In addition, boys like to try some new things, especially something difficult.

NO.11 in the questionnaire is the question about this part.

Q11: Which part of English learning do you like best?

A Listening

B Writing

C Translation

D Reading

E Comprehensive part

Among those answers, most boys choose reading and translation, they think there is no limit in these two parts, they can use whatever they have grasped, and they could get more knowledge. While most girls like writing and reading, they like write something to express themselves. They also think that reading is a good way for them to expand knowledge.

3.1.4 Differences in self-consciousness

Self-consciousness is one person’s knowledge, experience and management of his own mind and body. It not only represents the self-consciousness of physiology and psychology, but also represents the self-consciousness of interpersonal relation. Psychology researches show that there are gender differences on self-consciousness between male and female. Viewing the differences as a whole, males are more

objective than female in self-cognitive ability. When they put themselves in study or work, they have great confidence in their success.

3.1.5 Differences in physiology

For this reason, the mainly course is the difference of brain. The research of the brain science puts forward an interesting conclusion that female brain is obviously different from male. The two hemispheres of our brain have different functions. The left hemisphere is good at abstract thinking, mathematics and logical calculating, the right hemisphere is responsible for imaging, music and art appreciation. Most males are left hemisphere advanced, females are just on the opposite. The different functions of brain lead to different genders owning different language ability and thinking ability. Thus, females are skillful in language and short-term memory, but male are good at analysis-synthesis ability and observe-inference ability. So the different functions of brain also have influence on female and male’s second language acquisition.

3.2 Gender differences embodied in teachers’teaching process

In English teaching, some teachers treat boys and girls in different ways, that is, the requirement for boys is stricter than girls. In classroom error correction, teachers correct the boys’errors in public more often, the tone is stricter. In many teachers’opinions, they treat girls more tender is a way to save girls’faces. But the different attitudes to boys and girls have effects on students’learning motivation in a certain extent. For boys, they may think that the teachers don’t like him or he is not suitable to learn English. But for some girls, they may think that the teachers do not

beli eve their ability. Thus, those girls’ learning motivation also reducing gradually.

Teaching materials are also a factor in teachers’teaching process.

Because the feminism, Western countries began to give more attention to the gender differences which are existing teaching materials. They recompiled teaching materials without such prejudice which against gender differences. Our country also did some research about this issue in primary school and middle school. The research is mainly about the fig ure insets and the description of male and female’s personality and ability. After the research, they found that thoughts of inequality still exist in the sexes.

First, the frequency of occurrences of male and female in text and illustration still has giant divergence. There are 185 texts about “person” in the textbooks of the nine-year compulsory education. Among those texts, only 12.60% is used to describe female, while 77.95% is for describe male.

Second, the main idea of those texts is to continue traditional Chinese concepts. Males should work outside but female should stay at home to take care of the whole family. Males are supposed to be more worthy than the other sex.

Although the research of the teaching materials is conducted in primary school, it is an useful evidence about the differences embodied in teaching process.

In a word, the language teachers and teaching materials are the factors about the gender differences in second language teaching.

4. Implications

In Chinese education, teaching students according to their aptitude and teaching

students according to their gender are both basic requirement to achieve educational equality. Second language acquisition is a common issue in our society. Acquiring another language is useful for everyone. I n order to improve girls and boys’English competence, we can get some implications by the research.

4.1 Teachers

As English teachers, we should pay more attention to the relationship between boys and girls students and adopt proper teaching methods to help them making progress in English learning.

First, we should help students build the interest to English learning. Interest would lead them spend more time on it. As the saying goes, no pains, no gains. No matter boys or girls, as long as they study hard, be patient and develop more interests to English learning, they would get a better result.

Second, we should provide several useful learning strategies for students to improve their English learning and help them to find the suitable learning strategies for English learning. Besides, we should pay more attention to what students are doing and saying in class. And adjusting the class plans by student’s reflection.

Third, we should treat boys and girls in an equal way. Giving more chances to introvert and encouraging them to read and speak. In this way, they would get more confidence. It would fire their ardors of learning. As for those students who are extroverted, teachers should give them enough chances to express themselves. When they make mistakes, we should point out the mistakes and help them to correct them by the same way. Due to boys are more independent and they are unwilling to be

controlled, teachers could set some specific situations to help them in English learning. For girls, they are more emotional, we should try our best to build a knowledgeable image to them by improving our foreign language teaching level.

Finally, as the society developed, overall qualified people become more and more important. Thus, we should pay more attention to “single gender education” and help students to make use of their advantages and bypass their disadvantages. In addition, teachers should enhance the communication and association between girls and boys so that they can absorb the strong point of each other and compensate their shortcomings in every aspect.

4.2 Students

Students are the main body of English learning. According to their own English level to take measures to improving their English learning

First, they should build a right attitude towards English. English is an international communicative tool. Learning English is useful in our society. It is totally different with our mother tongue, but just as learning maths and other subjects spend more time on it and you will get more.

Second, in order to enhance their interest to English learning, they could pay more time to read some simple but interesting books. In this way, they would find English is interesting, at the same time, it would help them know more about English. Besides, during the English class, both boys and girls should take part in the activities. It is not only a way to practice what they have learned, but also a chance to find their own advantages. This is another way to enhance their interests to English.

Third, a good learning strategy is a good teacher. Thus, student should find the most suitable second language learning strategy. For example, for listening, they can listen to English songs and radios; for reading, they can read English newspapers and simple novels. In addition, class time is very precious, student must grasp every minute in class. Thus, focusing attention to what the teacher saying is very important.

Fourth, due to the personality’s differences, boys and girls should find useful ways to learning English. For boys, they should pay more attention to the English teaching process and take part in class activities. Practice makes perfect. Speak a lot and practice a lot would improve their confidence in English learning. For girls, they should spare more time in reading newspaper and books to broaden their visions and develop their logical thinking.

Fifth, although girls and boys have gender differences in English learning, these differences are good ways for them to learn something from each other. Thus, during English learning, boys and girls should help each other at all times. It would help them to making best use of the advantages and bypassing the disadvantages.

Conclusion

Second language acquisition is different from the native language. There are many factors related to the learner’s marks of the second language. In this paper, the author focus on the relationship between Second language acquisition and gender differences. The author used English learning as an example to analysis their relationship and summary the useful ways to improve students’English level.

After the analysis of gender differences and English learning, people could get these conclusions.

As for the differences in attitude and interest, most girls and boys have enthusiasm to English learning. But more girls have positive attitudes to English learning and they would like pat more time on it. Thus, teachers should help students

build the interest to English and students also should build a positive attitude to English learning.

As for the differences in language learning strategies, both boys and girls have effective strategies for learning English. For example, as they memorizing words, most of them would choose the associative memory. But girls do better than boys in paralanguage. Girls would be easier to follow the teachers’changes and they would give signs to teachers to show their thinking. Thus, teachers should help students to find some suitable learning strategies for their English learning. For some boys, they should pay more attention to what the teacher saying in class.

As for the teachers’teaching process, teachers’different attitudes to boys and girls would influence students’learning motivation. Teachers should treat boys and girls in an equal way and help students to make use of their advantages and bypass their disadvantages. Students should help each other all the times.

Nowadays, the relationship between Second language acquisition and gender differences is a hot spot of academic research in our society. As the development of the study, gender differences become a significant factor in the applied linguistics.

In a word, gender difference has a vital influence on English learning. In the process of promoting the quality education, taking the gender difference into consideration is not neglected. Besides, we should pay more attention to students’natural abilities and do our best to help them learn English happily and effectively.