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中文摘要:文章通过回顾过去几十年学者们的研究,考查了性别差异对二语学习策略的影响。作者首先指出学者们一致认为男性和女性在选择语言学习策略上是存在差异的,比如,女性比男性使用的策略更多且更频繁。此外,作者还考查了学者们对性别和其它变量如文化、学科、语言水平等的关系方面的研究,以便找出学者们是否对男性和女性在选择策略方面是否存在相对一致的观点。研究发现,在这一方面,学者们似乎还没有统一的结论。因此,作者建议应该做更多的研究来考查性别差异对语言学习者学习策略的影响。
关键词:性别差异,学习策略,语言水平
Abstract:The paper examines gender differences in L2 strategy use by reviewing the literature of the last two decades. The author first points out that a general consensus exists in the studies on the choice of language learning strategies by men and women, i.e., women use more strategies with a higher frequency than men. She then reviews the studies about the relationships between gender and other variables such as culture, the discipline of study, subject domains, language proficiency and the rest to find out whether there are consistent findings of the selection of learning strategies by males and females within and across different variables respectively. She states that research on this aspect is far from conclusive. Accordingly, she concludes the further research needs to be carried out on gender differences in L2 learning strategy use within and across other variables.
Key words:gender differences; language learning strategies; language proficiency
Learning strategies are the specific operations used by language learners to aid their learning in any subject area (Oxford, 1989). Considerable research has been done on the efficient strategies employed by the “good language learner” (See Oxford, 1993). Research reveals that many factors such as gender, culture, career, learning style, age, learning tasks, the discipline of study and the rest have an effect on the choice of language learning strategies (e.g. Oxford & Nyikos, 1989). Among these variables, gender differences are “of potential strategic value to university departments insofar as they are able to locate difficulties that students bring with them early in their undergraduate studies”(Meyer, 1995, p. 201). What’s more, Virpislotte & Sarilindblom-Ylanne (2001) point out that the study on the similarities and differences of gender in strategy use can provide valuable information for planning more successful study strategy training, to name but a few. Therefore, it is of great importance to study gender differences in L2 learning strategy use.
However, few studies have touched on gender differences in L2 learning strategy use. Oxford, Nyikos and Ehrman (1988) made a thorough review of studies concerning gender differences in L2 learning strategies and only found four empirically based studies that investigated the different strategies used by men and women (See Oxford, 1993a). Over the last two decades, researchers have come to realize that gender differences play an important role in L2 learning strategies, among whom Rebecca Oxford has made the most contribution to it (e.g. Oxford, 1988).In general, there is a consensus to date among the researchers that females tend to use more strategies and have a higher frequency of the strategy use than males. As noted earlier, other variables besides gender relate to the choice of language learning strategies. Accordingly, researchers have examined the gender differences when taking other variables into consideration to see whether gender difference trends exist within and across different variables (e.g. Oxford & Crookall, 1989; Fritz, 1992; Sheorey & Mokhtari, 2001; Ehrman and Oxford, 1988). However, research findings on gender difference with other variables under control have so far not been consistent and conclusive.
1. General Consensus on Gender Difference in L2 Strategy Use
Women were generally reported using more strategies with a higher frequency of strategy use than men in many studies (e.g. Politzer, 1983). As is mentioned earlier, four studies were mentioned in the review of Oxford, Nyikos and Ehrman (1988) to have provided empirical evidence for sex differences in L2 strategy use. Politzer (1983) was the first to have reported a more frequent use of social strategies for L2 learning among female college students than their male counterparts, which he did not explain and Oxford (1989) attributed to women’s stronger social orientation. Besides, Ehrman and Oxford (1989) found that women used significantly more L2 learning strategies than men in a study of adult language learners in four categories: general study strategies, functional practice strategies, strategies for negotiating meaning and self-management strategies. Further, the finding of Oxford and Nyikos (1989) revealed that females used three of five identified L2 learning strategies significantly more often than their male peers, which were formal rule-based strategies, general study strategies and conversational input-elicitation strategies. These studies consist with L1 research in that females are judged to be more socially interactive than males (Bacon, 1992). Oxford (1989) argued that these sex differences in Ehrman and Oxford (1989) and Oxford and Nyikos (1989) might have something to do with women’s greater social orientation, stronger verbal skills, and greater conformity to norms. The fourth study mentioned in the review is Nyikos (1987), whose study indicated a significant gender difference in the use of memory strategies for German vocabulary learning among university students. Men in the study performed better than women in the use of the color-plus-picture mnemonic strategy while women were superior to men in color-only condition after the training of the use of these strategies. She explained that socialization factors contributed to these differences, because “socialization processes cause men to value certain modalities for learning over those viewed as more appropriate for women”(Nyikos, 1990, p285).It might be safe to say that these four studies laid a foundation for the investigation of gender differences in L2 learning strategy for later research.
The findings of more recent studies have also revealed this gender difference trend in the use of strategies by men and women. The study of Green and Oxford (1995) has demonstrated that women use strategies significantly more often than men. In their factor analysis, women report using more affective and social strategies and are more often than men classified as global learners. Sheorey (1999) has studied language learning strategy use among Indian college students and found that Indian female students used strategies in greater frequency than male students. His findings provide empirical evidence to the observation of Green and Oxford (1995) that there are gender difference trends in strategy use despite different cultures. In addition, Sheorey and Mokhtari (2001) have examined differences in the reported use of reading strategies of native and non-native English speakers and find that the females in general use certain strategies more frequently than their male counterparts, although this difference is not very significant in the case of female ESL students.
It appears that researchers would like to consider other variables when studying gender differences in strategy use. They basically have other factors like culture, language proficiency, the discipline of study and the rest under control with an attempt to find out whether gender differences are pronounced within or across different variables. The relationships between gender and other variables in the choice of language learning strategies are discussed in the following sections separately.
2. Gender and Other Variables in the Choice of Learning Strategies
2.1 Gender and culture
The variables of culture and gender have undeniable effects on L2 learning strategy use.However, it is far from conclusive whether men and women from different cultural backgrounds can be consistently differentiated by the selection of learning strategies. Oxford, Par-Oh, Ito, and Sumrall (see Oxford, 1988) discovered the same gender difference trends among Japanese English learners. Their study showed that female Japanese students had a tendency to use cognitive strategies, social strategies, and affective strategies more frequently than their male counterparts.The same result is found by Sy (1994), who studies gender differences in the strategy use among Chinese students and discovers that females outperform men in using cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, and social strategies (see Oxford & Green, 1995). The same result is found by Sheorey (1999) also provides empirical support for this trend, who finds that Indian female students use learning strategies more often than male students and concludes, “gender differences in the use of strategies may be independent of cultural and educational background” (p186). These findings are of great importance because they show that some consistent gender differences in strategy use might exist within and across cultures. If this is the case, Green and Oxford (1995) argues that biological and/or socialization-related causes may account for these differences, and women and mendo differ in the use of different approaches to language learning. However, Tran (1988) examined gender differences in English learning strategies among Vietnamese adults over age 40 in the United States and obtained different findings from Sy (1994) and Sheorey (1999). He found that males performed better than females in using a variety of L2 learning strategies to improve their English skills (See Oxford, 1988). Additionally, as noted earlier, Sheorey and Mokhtari (2001) examine differences in the use of reading strategies of native (Americans) and non-native English speakers, who are of diverse cultural backgrounds such as Asia, Middle East, Latin America and others. They state that significant gender differences are found in the native group with the female reporting a higher frequency of strategy use, but not in the nonnative sample. They attribute this to the uneven number of males and female in nonnative students. Therefore, further research may be conducted on gender differences in strategy use within and across cultures.
2.2 Gender and the discipline of study
Investigations of student learning preferences have not yet obtained consistent findings about gender differences in the choice of learning strategies across disciplines of study. Richardson (1993) studies the gender difference in learning strategy use among students majoring social sciences to determine whether there is any gender difference among students in the same discipline with regard to their approaches to studying. His study indicates no difference between male and female students in particular aspects of studying behaviors.Besides his study, research suggested that females preferred the qualitative learning and content about people, while males had a preference for numeric and inanimate content in learning (Brainard & Ommen, 1977; Heikkinen et al, 1985; Smith & Lindner, 1986). Based on these studies, Smith (2001) examines the gender differences in the learning preferences of technology students and concludes that both male and female technology students need to develop the strategies for efficiently processing textually presented materials. But the males are in greater need of the strategies to assist them in dealing with qualitative information.Similarly, more research is needed to examine gender differences in L2 language learning strategy use within and across disciplines of study.
2.3 Gender and learning tasks
A few studies have investigated whether men and women differ in the kinds of incidence of strategies they use when they are engaged in different learning tasks. Bacon (1992) studies gender difference in strategy use when students listen to authentic input. The findings of the study indicate that men and women adjust their strategies differently to the difficulty of the passage. Women report using metacognitive and cognitive strategies when the passage becomes more difficult. On the other hand, “men dealt with the passage difficulty more aggressively with strategies that depended on linear processing and reference to English (the native language of students)” (p172).As far as the task of reading is concerned, Sheorey and Mokhtari (2001) studies gender differences in the use of reading strategies when dealing with academic materials. As noted earlier, the females in the native group report using reading strategies more frequently than their male peers, which is not reflected in the nonnative groups. In so far as the literature I’ve reviewed, no research has been conducted on speaking and writing. I assume that some interesting findings may be obtained when gender differences are studied in the use of strategy when students carry out speaking and writing tasks.
2.4 Gender and language proficiency
A general agreement has been reached on the relationship between gender and proficiency on learning strategies, i.e., that women and students with high English proficiency report using more strategies with a higher frequency than men and those with low proficiency (e.g. Sheorey, 1999), but it doesnot necessarily mean that women are more successful at language learning than men. Oxford and Crookall (1989) stated that it appeared that learners of high proficiency used more strategies than those of low proficiency. Yet, they asserted that the relationship between strategy use and proficiency was a complicated matter if the factor of gender was taken into consideration. Besides, Green & Oxford (1995) examine the relationship L2 proficiency and gender in terms of learning strategies. The findings of the study reveal that gender differences in language learning strategies do not necessarily mean that women learn languages better than men, because the study indicates no overlap between the strategies used more often by women and the strategies employed more frequently by more proficient students.In addition, Green and Oxford find that women do not outnumber men at more advanced course levels, although women use more strategies than men do in the study. Therefore, gender differences are not necessarily correlated with proficiency in the use of language learning strategies according to their study.
2.5 Gender and psychological type
Women and men can be identified by their use of learning strategies, which may be related to people’s psychological type (Ehrman & Oxford,1988). Ehrman and Oxford discovered that females showed preference for intuition and feeling than males. And feelers were superior in the use of general strategies than people of other psychological types. Since women were more feelers as the study indicated, Ehrman and Oxford contended that feeling could make a difference to the greater female reports of strategy use (p260). Nevertheless, few studies except this one have been done on the relationship between gender and psychological type on the choice of learning strategy in sofar as the literature I’ve found.
2.6 Gender and learning styles
Gender plays an important role in the choice of L2 learning strategies, which depends crucially on L2 learning styles (Oxford, 1993). It has been found that L2 learning style is also linked to gender (e.g. Ehrman & Oxford, 1988; Oxford and Ehrman, 1988; Nyikos, 1990). Oxford (1993b) concludes that learners have a tendency to select L2 learning strategies which are consistentwith their learning styles. To illustrate, she states that males have a preference for analytic, field-independent styles while females are identified as global, field-dependent learners. Accordingly, males would use more logic such deductive reasoning, whereas females would have a higher frequency of using nonanalytic strategies. Thus, the effect of learning styles should be considered when studying gender differences in strategy use.
2.7 Gender and subject domain
L2 learner may employ different strategies according to different subject domains besides other variables. It might be assumed that gender have an effect on the choice of learning strategies within specific subject domains. Virpi Slotte & Sarilindblom-Ylanne (2001) explores the existence of gender-difference in spontaneous study-strategies use in understanding statistical and philosophical texts. The findings of their study reveal that female students use overt study strategies more often than male participants, but no differences are detected between men and women in comprehending statistical and philosophical texts. Likewise, few studies have been made in this aspect.
Interestingly, different learning strategies, in turn, also affect women and men differently in their learning. Wang (1998) suggests that females are hindered by encapsulation strategy, which is not their favored strategy, whereas the learning process of men is made difficult by integration strategy, their nonpreferred strategy. More research might be carried out to see how different strategies affect men and women, which would be instructive to language strategy training.
3. Conclusion
To conclude, Oxford (1993a) argues that the study on gender differences in L2 learning strategies is interesting but complex, given that the results of these studies are far from conclusive and consistent. Therefore, she suggests that further research can examine both similarities and differences by gender, report variances as well as means that show gender differences, describe samples in detail and conduct mutlimethod research (p87). Besides, further investigations can be conducted on the relationship of gender-related factors such as learning styles, motivation and attitude or the choice of individual strategies and combination of strategies (Green and Oxford, 1995).
References
[1] Bacon, S. The relationship between gender, comprehension, processing strategies, and cognitive and affective response in foreign language listening[J]. Modern Language Journal, 1992, 76(2): 160-178.
[2] Baumeister, R.F. Should we stop studying sex differences altogether?[J] American Psychologist, 1988, 43:1092-1095.
[3] Brainard, S.R., & Ommen, J.L.Men, women, and learning styles[J]. Community College Frontiers, 1977, 5:32-36.
[4] Ehrman, N & Oxford, R. Effects of sex differences, career choice, and psychological type on adults’ language learning strategies[J]. Modern Language Journal, 1989, 73:1-13.
[5] Fritz, R. A study of gender differences in cognitive style and cognitive volition. Eric document [J]. 1992, ED354370.
[6] Green, J.M.& Oxford, R. A closer look at learning strategies, L2 proficiency and gender[J]. TESOL Quarterly, 1995, 29(2).
[7] Heikkinen, M., Pettigrew, F., & Zakrajsek, D. Learning styles vs.teaching styles-studying the relationship[J]. NASSP Bulletin,1985, 69: 80-85.
[8] Meyer, J.H.F. Gender-group differences in the learning behavior of entering first-year university students. Higher Education, 1995, 29: 201-215.
[9] Nyikos, M. The effect of color and imagery as mnemonic strategies on learning and retention of lexical items in German[M]. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 1987.
[10] Nyikos, M.Sex-related differences in adult language learning: socialization and memory factors[J]. Modern Language Journal, 1990, 74(3): 273-287.
[11] Oxford, R., Ehrman, M., & Nyikos, M. Vive la difference? Reflections on sex differences in use of language learning strategies[J]. Foreign Language Annals,1988, 21:321-329.
[12] Oxford, R., & Nyikos, M. Variables affecting choice of language learning strategies by university students[J]. Modern Language Journal, 1989, 73: 291-300.
[13] Oxford, R.Use of language learning strategies: a synthesis of studies with implications for strategic training[J]. System, 1989, 17(2): 25-247.
[14] Oxford, R.& Crookall D.Research on language learning strategies: methods, findings, and instructional issues[J]. Modern Language Journal,1989,73(4):404-419
[15] Oxford, R. Instructional implications of gender differences in second/foreign language styles and strategies[J]. Applied language learning, 1993a, 4:65-94.
[16] Oxford, R.La difference continue…gender differences in second/foreign language learning styles and strategies[M]. In:Sutherland, J.(Ed.), Exploring Gender(pp.140-147). Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ,1993b.
[17] Politzer, R.L. An exploratory study of self-reported language learning behaviors and their relation to achievement[J]. Studies in Second language acquisition, 1983, 6: 54-65.
[18] Richardson, J.T.Gender differences in responses to the approaches to studying inventory[J]. Studies in Higher Education, 1993, 18 (1),
[19] Sheorey, R. An examination of language learning strategy use in the setting of an indigenized variety of English[J]. System, 1999, 27:173-190.
[20] Sheorey, R. & Mokhtari, K. Differences in the metacognitive awareness of reading strategies among native and non-native readers. System, 2001, 29:431-449.
[21] Smith, P.J., & Lindner, C. Learning styles preferences of technical and further education students[M]. Melbourne: TAFE Board, 1986.
[22] Smith, P.J.Technology student learning preferences and the design of flexible learning programs[M]. Melbourne: TAFE Board, 2001.
[23] Virpi Slotte, K & Sarilindblom-ylanne. Study-strategy use in learning from text. Does gender make any difference?[J]. Instructional Science, 2001, 29: 255-272
[24] Wang, Nina. Do different learning strategies affect women and men differently in their learning?[J] Eric document ED416314, 1998.
关键词:性别差异,学习策略,语言水平
Abstract:The paper examines gender differences in L2 strategy use by reviewing the literature of the last two decades. The author first points out that a general consensus exists in the studies on the choice of language learning strategies by men and women, i.e., women use more strategies with a higher frequency than men. She then reviews the studies about the relationships between gender and other variables such as culture, the discipline of study, subject domains, language proficiency and the rest to find out whether there are consistent findings of the selection of learning strategies by males and females within and across different variables respectively. She states that research on this aspect is far from conclusive. Accordingly, she concludes the further research needs to be carried out on gender differences in L2 learning strategy use within and across other variables.
Key words:gender differences; language learning strategies; language proficiency
Learning strategies are the specific operations used by language learners to aid their learning in any subject area (Oxford, 1989). Considerable research has been done on the efficient strategies employed by the “good language learner” (See Oxford, 1993). Research reveals that many factors such as gender, culture, career, learning style, age, learning tasks, the discipline of study and the rest have an effect on the choice of language learning strategies (e.g. Oxford & Nyikos, 1989). Among these variables, gender differences are “of potential strategic value to university departments insofar as they are able to locate difficulties that students bring with them early in their undergraduate studies”(Meyer, 1995, p. 201). What’s more, Virpislotte & Sarilindblom-Ylanne (2001) point out that the study on the similarities and differences of gender in strategy use can provide valuable information for planning more successful study strategy training, to name but a few. Therefore, it is of great importance to study gender differences in L2 learning strategy use.
However, few studies have touched on gender differences in L2 learning strategy use. Oxford, Nyikos and Ehrman (1988) made a thorough review of studies concerning gender differences in L2 learning strategies and only found four empirically based studies that investigated the different strategies used by men and women (See Oxford, 1993a). Over the last two decades, researchers have come to realize that gender differences play an important role in L2 learning strategies, among whom Rebecca Oxford has made the most contribution to it (e.g. Oxford, 1988).In general, there is a consensus to date among the researchers that females tend to use more strategies and have a higher frequency of the strategy use than males. As noted earlier, other variables besides gender relate to the choice of language learning strategies. Accordingly, researchers have examined the gender differences when taking other variables into consideration to see whether gender difference trends exist within and across different variables (e.g. Oxford & Crookall, 1989; Fritz, 1992; Sheorey & Mokhtari, 2001; Ehrman and Oxford, 1988). However, research findings on gender difference with other variables under control have so far not been consistent and conclusive.
1. General Consensus on Gender Difference in L2 Strategy Use
Women were generally reported using more strategies with a higher frequency of strategy use than men in many studies (e.g. Politzer, 1983). As is mentioned earlier, four studies were mentioned in the review of Oxford, Nyikos and Ehrman (1988) to have provided empirical evidence for sex differences in L2 strategy use. Politzer (1983) was the first to have reported a more frequent use of social strategies for L2 learning among female college students than their male counterparts, which he did not explain and Oxford (1989) attributed to women’s stronger social orientation. Besides, Ehrman and Oxford (1989) found that women used significantly more L2 learning strategies than men in a study of adult language learners in four categories: general study strategies, functional practice strategies, strategies for negotiating meaning and self-management strategies. Further, the finding of Oxford and Nyikos (1989) revealed that females used three of five identified L2 learning strategies significantly more often than their male peers, which were formal rule-based strategies, general study strategies and conversational input-elicitation strategies. These studies consist with L1 research in that females are judged to be more socially interactive than males (Bacon, 1992). Oxford (1989) argued that these sex differences in Ehrman and Oxford (1989) and Oxford and Nyikos (1989) might have something to do with women’s greater social orientation, stronger verbal skills, and greater conformity to norms. The fourth study mentioned in the review is Nyikos (1987), whose study indicated a significant gender difference in the use of memory strategies for German vocabulary learning among university students. Men in the study performed better than women in the use of the color-plus-picture mnemonic strategy while women were superior to men in color-only condition after the training of the use of these strategies. She explained that socialization factors contributed to these differences, because “socialization processes cause men to value certain modalities for learning over those viewed as more appropriate for women”(Nyikos, 1990, p285).It might be safe to say that these four studies laid a foundation for the investigation of gender differences in L2 learning strategy for later research.
The findings of more recent studies have also revealed this gender difference trend in the use of strategies by men and women. The study of Green and Oxford (1995) has demonstrated that women use strategies significantly more often than men. In their factor analysis, women report using more affective and social strategies and are more often than men classified as global learners. Sheorey (1999) has studied language learning strategy use among Indian college students and found that Indian female students used strategies in greater frequency than male students. His findings provide empirical evidence to the observation of Green and Oxford (1995) that there are gender difference trends in strategy use despite different cultures. In addition, Sheorey and Mokhtari (2001) have examined differences in the reported use of reading strategies of native and non-native English speakers and find that the females in general use certain strategies more frequently than their male counterparts, although this difference is not very significant in the case of female ESL students.
It appears that researchers would like to consider other variables when studying gender differences in strategy use. They basically have other factors like culture, language proficiency, the discipline of study and the rest under control with an attempt to find out whether gender differences are pronounced within or across different variables. The relationships between gender and other variables in the choice of language learning strategies are discussed in the following sections separately.
2. Gender and Other Variables in the Choice of Learning Strategies
2.1 Gender and culture
The variables of culture and gender have undeniable effects on L2 learning strategy use.However, it is far from conclusive whether men and women from different cultural backgrounds can be consistently differentiated by the selection of learning strategies. Oxford, Par-Oh, Ito, and Sumrall (see Oxford, 1988) discovered the same gender difference trends among Japanese English learners. Their study showed that female Japanese students had a tendency to use cognitive strategies, social strategies, and affective strategies more frequently than their male counterparts.The same result is found by Sy (1994), who studies gender differences in the strategy use among Chinese students and discovers that females outperform men in using cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, and social strategies (see Oxford & Green, 1995). The same result is found by Sheorey (1999) also provides empirical support for this trend, who finds that Indian female students use learning strategies more often than male students and concludes, “gender differences in the use of strategies may be independent of cultural and educational background” (p186). These findings are of great importance because they show that some consistent gender differences in strategy use might exist within and across cultures. If this is the case, Green and Oxford (1995) argues that biological and/or socialization-related causes may account for these differences, and women and mendo differ in the use of different approaches to language learning. However, Tran (1988) examined gender differences in English learning strategies among Vietnamese adults over age 40 in the United States and obtained different findings from Sy (1994) and Sheorey (1999). He found that males performed better than females in using a variety of L2 learning strategies to improve their English skills (See Oxford, 1988). Additionally, as noted earlier, Sheorey and Mokhtari (2001) examine differences in the use of reading strategies of native (Americans) and non-native English speakers, who are of diverse cultural backgrounds such as Asia, Middle East, Latin America and others. They state that significant gender differences are found in the native group with the female reporting a higher frequency of strategy use, but not in the nonnative sample. They attribute this to the uneven number of males and female in nonnative students. Therefore, further research may be conducted on gender differences in strategy use within and across cultures.
2.2 Gender and the discipline of study
Investigations of student learning preferences have not yet obtained consistent findings about gender differences in the choice of learning strategies across disciplines of study. Richardson (1993) studies the gender difference in learning strategy use among students majoring social sciences to determine whether there is any gender difference among students in the same discipline with regard to their approaches to studying. His study indicates no difference between male and female students in particular aspects of studying behaviors.Besides his study, research suggested that females preferred the qualitative learning and content about people, while males had a preference for numeric and inanimate content in learning (Brainard & Ommen, 1977; Heikkinen et al, 1985; Smith & Lindner, 1986). Based on these studies, Smith (2001) examines the gender differences in the learning preferences of technology students and concludes that both male and female technology students need to develop the strategies for efficiently processing textually presented materials. But the males are in greater need of the strategies to assist them in dealing with qualitative information.Similarly, more research is needed to examine gender differences in L2 language learning strategy use within and across disciplines of study.
2.3 Gender and learning tasks
A few studies have investigated whether men and women differ in the kinds of incidence of strategies they use when they are engaged in different learning tasks. Bacon (1992) studies gender difference in strategy use when students listen to authentic input. The findings of the study indicate that men and women adjust their strategies differently to the difficulty of the passage. Women report using metacognitive and cognitive strategies when the passage becomes more difficult. On the other hand, “men dealt with the passage difficulty more aggressively with strategies that depended on linear processing and reference to English (the native language of students)” (p172).As far as the task of reading is concerned, Sheorey and Mokhtari (2001) studies gender differences in the use of reading strategies when dealing with academic materials. As noted earlier, the females in the native group report using reading strategies more frequently than their male peers, which is not reflected in the nonnative groups. In so far as the literature I’ve reviewed, no research has been conducted on speaking and writing. I assume that some interesting findings may be obtained when gender differences are studied in the use of strategy when students carry out speaking and writing tasks.
2.4 Gender and language proficiency
A general agreement has been reached on the relationship between gender and proficiency on learning strategies, i.e., that women and students with high English proficiency report using more strategies with a higher frequency than men and those with low proficiency (e.g. Sheorey, 1999), but it doesnot necessarily mean that women are more successful at language learning than men. Oxford and Crookall (1989) stated that it appeared that learners of high proficiency used more strategies than those of low proficiency. Yet, they asserted that the relationship between strategy use and proficiency was a complicated matter if the factor of gender was taken into consideration. Besides, Green & Oxford (1995) examine the relationship L2 proficiency and gender in terms of learning strategies. The findings of the study reveal that gender differences in language learning strategies do not necessarily mean that women learn languages better than men, because the study indicates no overlap between the strategies used more often by women and the strategies employed more frequently by more proficient students.In addition, Green and Oxford find that women do not outnumber men at more advanced course levels, although women use more strategies than men do in the study. Therefore, gender differences are not necessarily correlated with proficiency in the use of language learning strategies according to their study.
2.5 Gender and psychological type
Women and men can be identified by their use of learning strategies, which may be related to people’s psychological type (Ehrman & Oxford,1988). Ehrman and Oxford discovered that females showed preference for intuition and feeling than males. And feelers were superior in the use of general strategies than people of other psychological types. Since women were more feelers as the study indicated, Ehrman and Oxford contended that feeling could make a difference to the greater female reports of strategy use (p260). Nevertheless, few studies except this one have been done on the relationship between gender and psychological type on the choice of learning strategy in sofar as the literature I’ve found.
2.6 Gender and learning styles
Gender plays an important role in the choice of L2 learning strategies, which depends crucially on L2 learning styles (Oxford, 1993). It has been found that L2 learning style is also linked to gender (e.g. Ehrman & Oxford, 1988; Oxford and Ehrman, 1988; Nyikos, 1990). Oxford (1993b) concludes that learners have a tendency to select L2 learning strategies which are consistentwith their learning styles. To illustrate, she states that males have a preference for analytic, field-independent styles while females are identified as global, field-dependent learners. Accordingly, males would use more logic such deductive reasoning, whereas females would have a higher frequency of using nonanalytic strategies. Thus, the effect of learning styles should be considered when studying gender differences in strategy use.
2.7 Gender and subject domain
L2 learner may employ different strategies according to different subject domains besides other variables. It might be assumed that gender have an effect on the choice of learning strategies within specific subject domains. Virpi Slotte & Sarilindblom-Ylanne (2001) explores the existence of gender-difference in spontaneous study-strategies use in understanding statistical and philosophical texts. The findings of their study reveal that female students use overt study strategies more often than male participants, but no differences are detected between men and women in comprehending statistical and philosophical texts. Likewise, few studies have been made in this aspect.
Interestingly, different learning strategies, in turn, also affect women and men differently in their learning. Wang (1998) suggests that females are hindered by encapsulation strategy, which is not their favored strategy, whereas the learning process of men is made difficult by integration strategy, their nonpreferred strategy. More research might be carried out to see how different strategies affect men and women, which would be instructive to language strategy training.
3. Conclusion
To conclude, Oxford (1993a) argues that the study on gender differences in L2 learning strategies is interesting but complex, given that the results of these studies are far from conclusive and consistent. Therefore, she suggests that further research can examine both similarities and differences by gender, report variances as well as means that show gender differences, describe samples in detail and conduct mutlimethod research (p87). Besides, further investigations can be conducted on the relationship of gender-related factors such as learning styles, motivation and attitude or the choice of individual strategies and combination of strategies (Green and Oxford, 1995).
References
[1] Bacon, S. The relationship between gender, comprehension, processing strategies, and cognitive and affective response in foreign language listening[J]. Modern Language Journal, 1992, 76(2): 160-178.
[2] Baumeister, R.F. Should we stop studying sex differences altogether?[J] American Psychologist, 1988, 43:1092-1095.
[3] Brainard, S.R., & Ommen, J.L.Men, women, and learning styles[J]. Community College Frontiers, 1977, 5:32-36.
[4] Ehrman, N & Oxford, R. Effects of sex differences, career choice, and psychological type on adults’ language learning strategies[J]. Modern Language Journal, 1989, 73:1-13.
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