Gender and SLA

Gender and Second/Foreign Language Acquisition The field of gender and SLA or FLA has been the focus of research since the 1970s. At first, studies focused exclusively on sex as a male/female binary op position, only considering it as a biological category (Ehrlich, 1997; Sunderland, 2000). The center of attention was sex differences in language use (vocabulary, grammar, and speech), which usually implied female disadvantage. Accordingly, individual differences (e.g., social and cultural factors) have been left behind. These individual differences seem essential to ascertain why a person is a better language learner than another, since sex does not assure that. From 1990 onwards, only individual differences were included in subse quent studies because they were thought to have a significant impact on the acquisition of a second or foreign language. Those divergences, that could be physical, social, cultural or a combination of them, were highly relevant for second and foreign language teachers, as they let them know how diverse their students were (Hugar, 1982). This means that learners differ from one another because of the internal (e.g., motivation, emotion) and external factors (e.g., context, type of test) that surround them. Therefore, this approach completely excludes sex as a biological category. Another viewpoint is to consider gender as both a biological category and a psychological, social, and cultural factor to ascertain its role in the acquisition of a SL or FL. However, as Hugar (1982) and Saville-Troike (2006) claim, there is no research about how sex, recognized as a biological factor, influences second or foreign language acquisition. Studies might have focused and still focus on gender as a social and cultural factor because it gives more enriching results for SLA and FLA. The sole considera tion of biological differences only reveals sex-related differences and excludes other significant factors (physical, social, cultural) that contribute to learning. Gender differences have been investigated in several areas in SLA and FLA, such as listening comprehension (Boyle, 1987; Namaziandost et al., 2018), language achievement (Burstall, 1975; Ekstrand, 1980), vocabulary and learn ing strategies (Noprianto & Purnawarman, 2019; Oxford & Nyikos, 1989), or learning styles (Oxford & Ehrman, 1995; Reid, 1987). The general belief is that females are better language learners, but this is not always the case. In a nutshell, there are inconclusive findings because some scholars declare the superiority of females over males (Ekstrand, 1980; López-Rúa, 2006), others claim that males are better language learners than females (Andreou, Vlachos, & Andreou, 2005; Boyle, 1987), and no significant differences have been dis closed (Bacon, 1992).