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This is a study of both Japanese and American cultures designed to illustrate how students
must make realizations about their own hidden cultural values and assumptions before they can comprehend another language
/ culture. The author states that “in order to understand a language and culture one must understand that his / her
own cultural values are not universal.” Standardized questions regarding
ethnocentrisms were posed to males and females and their answers were compared and contrasted.
Additionally, American male and female answers were compared with those of Japanese male and female answers, and the
results were very interesting regarding the assigned gender roles and perceptions within the two cultures. The article was concluded with some excellent examples of self-discovery activities (students picking non-traditional
chores [boys washing dishes, girls taking out the trash] to do around the house and writing about what they did, how they
felt, etc…).
This piece talks about the backlash from educators’ over compensation for the female plight
in schools experienced years before the 1990’s. Critics are stating that
males have a bigger disadvantage learning to read and write and have significantly more problems with issues of dropping out
of school, violence, suicide and abuse. These critics believe that attention
should be returned to the boys to give them a fair shot in the academic setting. The
article refutes the critics and describes the obstacles that have been overcome and/or remain for females in the academic
environment. It cites that “ESL does not get drawn into the argument
that everything is now fine for female students…” but agrees that more research needs to be done on behalf of
both boys and girls through college age. It is suggested in the writings that
persons of power (men) want to stay in power and will do anything to keep males in powerful positions, including “claiming
of more disadvantage for boys and men”. She also goes into how the Iraq
war is essentially the fault of men with “macho” attitudes and posturing, which is getting away from the point
of education and about which I am going to bite my tongue and not comment.
This article presents scientific study by Micheal Ullman (a neuroscientist from Georgetown University)
of the male and female cognitive processes during language learning. Research
concluded that men and women use different parts of the brain to process language skills.
Women tend to use a more declarative memory (making mental word lists, word associations and rhymes) to make sense
of language rules. This proved disadvantageous in understanding imperfections
and exceptions to grammatical rules (I hold, I held, I will hold versus I hold, I holded, I will hold). For example, because “holded” rhymes with “molded” and “folded”, girls
tend to make more past tense mistakes. Men use a more logical processing of language
rules, and have a higher aptitude for mastering grammatical elements than memorizing idiomatic expressions or vocabulary. Both sexes use procedural memory (sentence creation, for example) equally even though
each use different brain processes to get the job done. Fascinating read!
A gender-centered language study was conducted on 109 fifth graders using various software. The students responded to audio commands with a text and/or story either present or absent. The presence of text prompted higher achievement overall in student listening skill performance. Girls performed better than the boys, especially in the activities with embedded stories. Scientists conclude that this indicates girls prefer a larger variety of software than boys.
This article discusses the relationship between Motivation (the internal drive to make and carry
out goal-oriented activities) and Transfer (using acquired knowledge in new language learning situations). Students need to see the practical applications of the language (transfer) in order to become motivated
to perform the tasks required to learn the language (motivation). The two are
self-supporting and need each other to produce an effective learning environment. The
study goes on to explain the details of the nature of transfer and two schools of thought on the benefits of “transfer-friendly”
instruction. It also describes the multi-faceted influences of motivation and
how teachers can positively exploit the two elements to create a successful language curriculum. Since science has revealed that language achievement is a result of a positive learning environment in
addition to cognitive ability, the author offers strategies to more effectively teach languages by fostering motivation and
creating more opportunities for skill transfer. This reminds me of our “Authentic
Task and Assessment” section in B & K’s Chapter 7, pp149-162, but this article provides more scientific research. I know that this is not 100% directly related to gender, but it was such a great find
I couldn’t keep it to myself! Thanks for indulging me.
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