Running head: GENDER AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Sociocultural Approach to Gender and Second Language Acquisition
--investigating resource access, agency, and socialization variables
Jingjing & Elise & Shouyi
The Pennsylvania State University
APLNG 491
Fall 2013
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Introduction
Differences in the ways that men and women use language have long been of interest in
the study of researchers. Advocates of “new-biologism” argue that male-female behavior not
only differs in physical ways, but also in their cognitive abilities and psychological dispositions,
which leads to different ways of habitual behavior (Cameron, 2009). In other words, they argued
that gender differences in language use is the effect of biological sex. There are some prevalent
arguments on the gender differences in L1/L2 language use. For example, in Dr. Cameron’s
famous book “The Myth of Mars and Venus- Do men and women really speak different
languages?”, she claimed that “men's goals in using language tend to be about getting things
done, whereas women's tend to be about making connections to other people; Men talk more
about things and facts, whereas women talk more about people, relationships and feelings.”
Other linguistics such as Lakoff (1975) suggest that women speak a ‘powerless language’uncertain, weak, excessively polite-and rely on hedges, tag questions, emphatic stress, and
hyper-correct grammar. Such language may be regarded as appropriate feminine style in social
settings.
According to Pavlenko (2001), gender is not a set of traits, a variable or a role, but is a
social, historical and cultural product, constructed relations of power, produced and reproduced
in interaction between and among men and women. Masculinities and femininities, as well as
beliefs and ideas about relations between the sexes, may vary across cultures as well as over time
within a culture. We favor sociocultural approach that emphasizes on the relationship between
second language acquisition and power, individual agency, as well as socialization histories. In
this paper, we examine gender differences in language use from three different perspectives:
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gendered access to linguistic resources, gendered agency, motivation, and investment, and
gendered socialization patterns.
Gendered access to linguistic resources
Gender as a system of social relations and discursive practices structures differential
opportunities for access to linguistic resources (Pavlenko, 2001). Numerous studies demonstrate
that in some minority and immigrant communities, where second language plays a vital role in
obtaining social and economic benefits, men have privileged access to linguistic resources while
women have very limited access to second language education or to workplaces. To begin with,
women’s status as housekeepers and mothers, in addition to the lack of governmental fund
daycare may result in the immobility of taking English-as-a-second-language classes. However,
in some contexts even though there are available day care solutions, professional training or
other linguistic resources, women still have problems in utilizing such resources. In some
cultures, husbands may insist that only family can take care of children. Similarly, Goldstein’s
(1995) study demonstrates that in some Portuguese communities, although young Portuguese
women can use the daycare service, there are still some cultural conflicts which limit them in
accessing linguistic resources, because it is regarded inappropriate to sit with stranger males in
the same classroom. Besides limited access to second language classrooms, women from some
minority and immigrant communities also have limited access to enter the workforce. For
example, in some minority and immigrant communities, women are largely dependent on men as
the breadwinner of a family. Participating in the workforce helps men develop their bilingual
abilities, while in many cases women would engage in some practices such as babysitter or
language teacher of their native language which may not have an equal learning opportunity of
using the target language as men do in workplaces.
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In some cultures, certain cultural values may result in women’s limited access to second
language learning. According to Harvey’s (1994) study , in indigenous communities in South
America, bilingualism is the key to show ideal masculinity and the men are portrayed as “skillful
mediators between the inside world of kinship and community and the outside world of finance
and knowledge”. In contrast, the ideal femininity place women firmly inside their community,
making them the transmitters of the home language, and cultural, ethnic, and religious traditions.
Bilingualism is not highly valued for women because they are the ‘guardians of their home
language’ and the backward members of their community. However, women in such cultures
gradually realize the negative effect of their inability of using their second language-Spanish,
which signifies their social positions due to such inferiority.
Besides minority and immigrant women who have limited access to linguistic resources,
middle- and upper-class western women who live abroad as students or expatriates and
temporary workers also are disadvantaged in accessing linguistic resources. According to
Pavlenko’s (2001) interview of Americans who live in Japan, white western men have more
access to informal interactional situations in which they can pick up languages through
interactions in local Japanese pub or practicing the language with their Japanese girlfriends. In
contrast, American western women do not form such relationships as American western men do.
However, we believe that it is not the case in all situations. There is no such thing as men and
women in general but different kinds of men and women. There are also some females who are
very active and would like to engage in various social interactions and they like to form
relationships with American boys. For example, female Asian students whose boyfriends are
Americans may have more chances to practice English than their Asian male classmates who
don’t have such relationship.
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Reflecting on the pedagogical implications of gendered access to linguistic resources,
ESL teachers should understand students’ cultural constraints. In some cultures, although it is
acceptable to sit in one classroom with male strangers, some female students may still feel
problematic to speak with their male classmates or watch some videos containing pop culture
such as music or dancing. As a result, ESL teachers should make wise decisions on grouping
students and selecting materials. In addition, some students may have more access to linguistic
resources, while other students only get chances to speak English in the ESL classroom.
Therefore, as teacher we should try our best to introduce and find varied resources like
roundtable sessions, conferences, clubs or language partner programs.
Gendered agency, motivation, and investment
The intrinsic relationship between gender and agency also plays an essential role in
studying language and gender. Here we define agency as individual decisions and actions in the
process of L2 learning and use. Researchers hold quite different views towards agency in
individual’s language learning and acquisition. According to Pavlenko (2001), many SLA
theories view L2 learner as passive vessels for input and output, whereas poststructuralist
approaches portray them as agents of their own learning. This implies that individuals are in
charge of their motivations and investment in learning their second or additional languages.
The decisions made by individual learners are considerably influenced by the certain
context they are in. Pavlenko and Piller (2001) discussed different reactions individuals have
towards learning their second or additional languages. In some cases, L2 users may decide to
learn any additional language only to a certain extent that allows them to be proficient, but
without consequences of losing old perception towards world and adopting the new ways of
being in the world. In other contexts, their L2 learning may be accompanied by a full transition
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to the new linguistic community and L1 loss. In addition, L2 learners may resist the language
that positions them unfavorably and favor the language in which they have positive profile.
An individual’s choice is only part of the story. Poststructuralist believes that agency is
influenced by language ideologies and power structures within a particular society. Gender as a
system of social relations and practices is considered as one of the key factors that in certain
context may influence the decision-making and language shift.
Differences in gender relations and power between particular speech communities may
motivate individuals to learn a second language that will ensure them a higher, more respectable
social and economic status. In Piller and Takahashi’s (2006) study, self-interested motives were
showed by of a group of Japanese women who had invested significant resources in acquiring
English in order to contract relationships with Anglophone men. In this case, it is not obvious
that these women’s preferences reflected the ‘good provider’ principle. That is to say, even
though Japanese men have both higher levels of job-security and lower rates of divorce than
Anglo-Saxon men, Japanese women still had the preference for Anglophone men based on a
perception that they are more glamorous than Japanese, and less traditional in their attitudes to
women. This study suggests that the links between gender power and English allow female
Japanese learners in a comfortable environment to use English as a language of empowerment.
It is also important to bring attention to the assumption that women are not always the ones
prompted to language shift by unequal gender relations. In Herbert (1992)’s study, men are the
ones who lead the language shift to Zulu, in which they may improve their economic and social
status compared to their original Thonga community in South Africa. In Thonga culture, women
have higher prestige and more power than that in the dominant Zulu culture. Respectively, men
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have the desire to assimilate to Zulu language and culture to get a higher economic and social
status.
It is equally important to point out that gender may not only prompt second language
learning and language shift but may also elicit resistance to learning a language which
invalidates individuals’ gender subjectivities and replaces them with other ones. The changing
nature of gender relations and the meaning of bilingualism is emphasized by Aikio (1992), who
discusses the Sami community in Finland, where women historically enjoyed a comparatively
high social and economic status and freedom to travel, while Finnish women were perceived by
Sami women as economically disadvantaged, dependent on their husbands, and forced to stay in
one spot. As a consequence, up until World War II Sami women attempted to protect themselves
from the dominant culture by refusing to learn Finnish. Once the traditional social and economic
status began to change during- and as a result of- World War II, Sami women followed Sami
men in their shift to Finnish.
Paying attention to gender and agency enhances our understanding of individual differences
that may lead to investment in L2 learning or resistance to it. The studies discussed above
convincingly demonstrate that it’s not the essential nature of femininity or masculinity that
defines that patterns of language shift or linguistic trajectories of particular individuals, but rather
the nature of gendered social and economic relations, the ideologies of language and gender that
mediate these relations.
Gendered socialization patterns
As Cameron (2005) states, postmodern feminist approach to language and gender tend to
examine the relationship between language and gender as an ongoing construct influenced by
social relations, and power, etc. Current researches lead to the claim that masculinities and
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femininities are produced in specific context or “communities of practice”. The research
evidence indicates that gender traits are inflected by individual’s socialization pattern. Moreover,
instead of carrying on fixed gender traits, individuals perform their gender identities through
language in relation to local social context.
“Cultural difference” researchers such as Deborah Tannen (2001) argue that linguistic
gender differences reflect habits acquired in the childhood. They believe boys and girls socialize
mainly with peers of their own sex, which influence their communication styles. It is argued that
boy form large, hierarchical groups with leaders and followers and play competitive games with
rules. Therefore, they learn to argue, boast, give and receive orders, and gradually develop a
competitive, statues-oriented style. In contrast, girls form small and loose-structured group and
play simple games where turn taking is more frequent thus develop a supportive and cooperative
style. This generalization implies that each gender acquires its habitual style determined by
social arrangements. However, the problem is that such claim could not explain why there are no
uniform linguistic gender differences among cultures and different social classes. Recent
research has cast doubt on the empirical validity of this generalization.
Goodwin (2008) videotaped the interactions among a group of pre-adolescent girls in Los
Angeles for three years. His findings contest the generalization that girls acquire a more
supportive, cooperative style. The girls’ group he observed had an internal hierarchy with both
leaders and followers. The lowest-status participant, who was dubbed the ‘tag-along girl’, was
subjected to regular bullying by the others. When they played games such as jump-rope or
hopscotch, they frequently argued about the rules because of the desire to win or to outshine their
peers. They also regularly boasted about their skills, their possessions and the relative wealth of
their families. This study shows that girls do not necessarily acquire “supportive and cooperative”
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communication style as expected, but are naturally socialized into a style that their same-sex peer
circle allowed and encouraged. This is not the only case demonstrate that each gender does not
have a fixed communication style but acquire communication styles through socialization in
specific contexts (Baxter, 2006; Dillard, 1995).
Following the argument of gender as a social, historical, and cultural product, we believe
that individuals perform gender identities in specific contexts where masculinities or femininities
are favored. In Cameron’s (2000) research on the regulation of language use in British call
centers, the preferred style of speech in customer service imposed ‘feminized’ style on workers
of both sexes. One of the most valued linguistic behaviors in call center was using intonation and
gentle voice to show interest and sympathy in caller. Such communication style was considered
as “women-language”. However, men who wanted to work in this field were expected to style
themselves into a feminized way to meet social expectations. In other words, social relations
impose pressure on the individual to perform particular gender traits in a specific context.
Similarly, if a female politician wants to run an election or argue for her stance, she needs to
adopt the expected masculinized speech style in order to take the floor and reach her goal.
Other researches shed light on the impact of gendered friendship practice on linguistic
behavior in bilingual contexts. Woolard (1997) conducted an ethnographic case study of high
school students in the Barcelona area where new language policy had taken place since 1980.
Catalan and Castilian have the co-official status in Spain. Although Catalanization of the schools
has had been quite successful, Catalan was not often used by non-native speakers outside of the
classroom. This research indicates that girls' and boys' peer groups structure differently within
the overall social network of this classroom. Boys groups are ethnically and linguistically mixed
with Catalan and Castilian speakers while girls tend to form ethnic and linguistic homogeneous
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group. The different gendered friendship network affected the use of their bilingual repertoire.
For example, girls circle set stronger constraints on bilingual language use. Woodlard (1997)
also points out that language choice may have consequences for social identities because
languages carry out ideologies. In this case, since Catalan is associated with higher social status,
girls’ linguistically homogenous group may have greater effect on their social identities.
Besides social interactions, agents of socialization such as textbooks and social media may
also affect students as language learners and users. Content analysis of ESL textbooks, published
in the 1970s and early 1980s, revealed the sexism on ESL/EFL textbooks: sexist language in
texts such as the use of masculine generics like “he”, “man”, or “mankind”; relative invisibility
of female characters; stereotypes in gender roles in occupations, relationships, and actions,
shown by text and visual illustration (Sunderland, 1992). Those textbooks portray stereotypical
gender roles as man occupying higher social positions while women as subordinate roles.
Although the notion of avoiding sexist language is widespread, many ESL/EFL materials
in use still convey the outdated language of a male-dominated society. The intention created by
the gap between outdated textbooks and the actual language use has a negative impact on second
language learning.
The negative effect of stereotyped gendered representations in textbooks might be in
three ways: 1) language learners might be consciously or unconsciously offended, alienated or
feel marginalized by stereotyped gender representations and subsequently demotivate their
language learning; 2) second language learners might not be aware of gender issues when they
acquire the target language, thus leave room for potential conflicts in interaction with people. 3)
the models of language can become classroom practice. For example, it was found that some
textbooks have a male initiating each mixed-sex dialogue. When doing activities like role-play,
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it’s likely to give male students more chances in “initiating a conversation” and leave a model of
“male firstness” discourse.
To put together, fully understanding of second language learners’ motivation and choice,
researchers and front-line teachers should not only attend to sex differences, but also take into
account individual’s complex socialization that engage in language and gender, such as peer
interaction, expected communication norms, language ideology, textbooks, and socio-economic
status.
Conclusion
In sum, we hope to have demonstrated the importance of forging new links between the
fields of second language acquisition and gender. It is not the fixed set of traits of gender that
defines the patterns of multilingualism, language maintenance or language shift, but rather the
nature of gender, social, and economic relations, and ideologies of language and gender that
mediate these relations. Gendered language use is like a growing tree, which has its root on
power, resources, motivation, agency, investment, social interactions, and socialization agents.
This tree lives in and interacts with certain culture and context, at certain time and space. It is not
a fixed dead tree, but keeps changing and growing.
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