THE EFFECTS OF GENDER ON
COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES
OF VIETNAMESE EFL
LEARNERS
PRESENTER:
ĐINH NGỌC HẠNH
People’s Police College
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CS:
CSs:
Ss:
Communication strategy
Communication strategies
Strategies
REASON FOR RESEARCH
• Studies on communication strategies (CSs): for
nearly four decades.
• The studies contribute to applied linguistics and
second language acquisition.
• They are still inadequate; remain controversies over
certain issues.
LITERATURE REVIEW:
COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES
CSs are “strategies which a language user employs in
order to achieve his intended meaning on becoming
aware of problems arising during the planning phase of
an utterance due to (his own) linguistic shortcoming”
(Poulisse, 1900; cited by Ellis, 1994, p.44).
-
LITERATURE REVIEW:
FACTORS AFFECTING THE CHOICES OF CSS
Target language proficiency and CSs
Learning and communicating contexts and CSs
Task types and CSs
Gender differences and CSs
Personality and CSs
First language and CSs
Teachablity and teaching of CSs
LITERATURE REVIEW:
GENDER AND CSS – PREVIOUS STUDIES
• Fishman (1983): Men tried to be dominant in the
conversation while women used more questions;
sometimes men and women might have different
initial purposes when using the same CS.
• Hou (1998): no obvious difference in the narrative
task; female learners tended to use more strategies of
code-switching and asking for help than male learner
did in the interactional task.
LITERATURE REVIEW:
GENDER AND CSS – PREVIOUS STUDIES
• Wang (2008): female learners used borrowing
strategies more often than male learners did.
• Lai (2010): male and female learners were not
significantly different in the use of CSs but female
learners seemed to use CSs more efficiently than
male learners did because they carried out the
execution phase of production more effectively.
LITERATURE REVIEW:
GENDER AND CSS – PREVIOUS STUDIES
• Lack of consensus on the effect of gender on the use
of CSs among the researchers.
• Researches: carried out in different situations, with
different participant levels of proficiency and
cultures, and with different instruments.
HYPOTHESIS
• In Vietnamese language learning context: male
learners use more types of CSs and use them more
frequent than female learners do.
METHODOLOGY
The study was conducted in the People’s Police College
located in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Participants:
 60 students (40 males and 20 females) - intermediate level
Methods:
 Questionnaire
Observation (Video-taped)
METHODOLOGY
The study was conducted in the People’s Police College
located in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Participants
Methods
• 60 students
(40 males and
20 females) intermediate
level
• Questionnaire
• Observation
(Video-taped)
METHODOLOGY:
INSTRUMENTS
 Questionnaire:
• Developed from the Questionnaire on Communication
Strategies for Chinese Learners of English (Yang and Gai, 2010)
and Faerch and Kasper’s typology of CSs
• Used to assess learners’ attitudes toward using CSs and the
frequency of using CSs.
• Five-point scale.
 Video Recording:
•
12 female and 12 male learners performed a concept
identification task.
METHODOLOGY:
PROCEDURES
Questionnaire
Video
Recording
FINDINGS FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRE:
ATTITUDES TOWARDS CSS OF MALE AND FEMALE LEARNERS
Chart 1. Attitudes towards CSs of Male and Female
Learnres
5
4
3
2
1
0
4,6 4,8
3,5
3,125
2,52,35
1,2 1,3
4,2 4,5
2,82,67
Male
Female
FINDINGS FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRE:
ATTITUDES TOWARDS CSS OF MALE AND FEMALE LEARNERS
 There was no significant difference between the attitudes
of male and female learners towards CSs.
 Both groups of gender have:
• positive attitude towards L2-based strategies and
cooperative strategies,
• neutral attitude towards code-switching strategies and nonlinguistic strategies,
• negative attitude towards reduction strategies and especially
retrieval strategies.
 Learners seem to prefer compensatory strategies to reduction
strategies and retrieval strategies.
FINDINGS FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRE:
FREQUENCY OF USING CSS BY MALE AND FEMALE LEARNERS
Chart 2. Frequency of Using CSs by Male and Female
Learners
5
4
3
2
1
0
3,45
3,5
3,25
2,875
2,25
3,12
2,5
3,25
3,83 4
3,5 3,6
Male
Female
FINDINGS FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRE:
FREQUENCY OF USING CSS BY MALE AND FEMALE LEARNERS
• Gender factor seems to have no obvious effect on
the use of CSs.
• Both female and male learners use cooperative
strategies, non-linguistic strategies, and reduction
strategies more often than retrieval strategies, codeswitching strategies, and L2-based strategies.
• Male learners use code-switching strategies more
often than female learners do.
FINDINGS FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRE
• Learners do not agree to the use of reduction
strategies but they often use them in communication.
• Learners seem to be attracted by “positive” strategies
which they think to be useful for their study but they
use “negative” strategies in real communication
because of their limited proficiency.
RESULTS FROM THE VIDEO-RECORDING:
FREQUENCY OF USING CSS BY MALE AND FEMALE LEARNERS
25
Chart 3. Frequency of Using CSs by Male and Female
Learners in Task
20
22
15
10
9
13
10
5
7
0
0
Male
0
2
5
1
1
2
Female
RESULTS FROM THE VIDEO-RECORDING:
FREQUENCY OF USING CSS BY MALE AND FEMALE LEARNERS
• Male learners spoke and used CSs more frequently
than female learners did.
• Male learners were braver and more eager to take
risks to communicate
RESULTS FROM THE VIDEO-RECORDING:
TYPES OF CSS
Chart 4. Types of CSs Used by Male and Female Learners
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
46%
38%
29%
27%
21%
0% 0%
21%
4%
4%
8%
2%
Male
Female
RESULTS FROM THE VIDEO-RECORDING:
TYPES OF CSS
• Both male and female learners used L2-based
strategies the most frequently; hardly used nonlinguistic strategies and did not use reduction
strategies.
• Male learners tended to use cooperative strategies
more often than females while female learners chose
code-switching strategies more than males
DISCUSSION
Questionnaire
Video recording
DISCUSSION
In the real
performance
learners use L2-based strategies and retrieval strategies
more frequent and do not use reduction strategies
learners tried to use L2-based strategies rather than
code-switching
learners did not use non-linguistic strategies frequently
female learners tended to use code-switching strategies
more often than males learners while male learners
tended to use more cooperative strategies
male learners seemed to be more active in
communication than female learners
CONCLUSION
• The findings proposed that male and female learners reported
the same use of CSs; in the real performance, however, male
learners were more active and eager to communicate; male
learners tended to use L2-based strategies and cooperative
strategies while female learners chose L2-based strategies and
code-switching strategies.
• Learners should be organized in sex-mixed pairs and groups so
that male and female learners can learn CSs from each other.
• CS training should be applied to help learners practice and be
familiar with the CSs that are thought to be “positive” to their
learning.
LIMITATIONS
 The results from the questionnaire might only reflect
how learners perceive their use of CSs not how they use
CSs in real communication
 The use of CSs is also affected by task types
 The use of CSs was examined in the classroom setting
and might be different from the natural setting
 Gender factor should be considered in relationship with
other factors such as task nature, proficiency, personality,
etc. to see which factor has more effects on CSs and how
these factors affect each other when learners use CSs.
Ellis, R. (1994). The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Fishman, P. (1983) ‘Interaction: the work women do’, in Barrie Thorne
et al. (eds) Language, Gender and Society. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury
House, pp. 89-101. First published 1978 in Social Problems, 25, 397406
Hou, S. S. (1998). Effect of tasks and genders on communication
strategies. Journal of PLA University of Foreign Languages, 21(6), 18-23.
Lai, H. (2010), Gender Effect on the Use of CSs, English Language Teaching,
3(4), 28-32.
Wang, L. M. (2008). A study of gender differences in communication
strategies by EFL learners. Foreign Languages and Their Teaching, 8, 3741.