Inferring conversational implicatures could be difficult

Rose and Nicholl"s theory dealing with the effectiveness of multisensory learning seems contradictory with Pease and Pease"s theory regarding with gender-based multitasking. The present study aims at: 1) determining the significance of the difference of STM of English vocabulary between males and females trained with different types of modality; 2) testing whether multimodality lowers males" STM of English vocabulary; and 3) exploring the trainees" modality preference and their reasons based on sex. This mix-methods study involved 60 subjects drawn through Allocation Random Sampling from the entire freshmen. Data were collected with tests, a structured questionnaire, an interview, a tape-recorder, observations and note-taking. They were analyzed with Two-way Anova, Chi-square (χ 2 ) and cyclical qualitative analysis. It shows that: 1) there is a significant difference of STM of English vocabulary between males and females trained with different types of modality; 2) multimodality did not lower males" STM of English vocabulary; and 3) Pease and Pease"s theory is not accepted. The determinants of their modality preference are the effectiveness of a certain type of modality, their learning habits and their school regulations.

Since women tend to use indirect speech, it is assumed that women face different causes of failure in each type of implicature question when doing Part A Listening Comprehension of TOEFL-like. The present study aims at exploring the: 1) types of implicature question that male test-takers failed to answer and the causes of failure and 2) types of implicature question that female test-takers failed to answer and the causes of failure. This case study involved six students of English Education Program University of Mataram selected based on the result of the preliminary study. Data were collected with tests, retrospective report, inventory of causes of failure, interview, recording and human instrument. Data were analyzed with Mixed Methods: Embeded Design. It shows that types of implicature questions that male and female test-takers' failed to answer are similar, except Predictable action question. However, some causes of failure to answer certain implicature questions are different. Detailed findings are shown.