Investigating Gender Differences on the Students’ Attitudes and Motivation toward English Learning

Abstract

Some researchers have researched to explore the effects of gender differences on learning outcomes. However, the interrelatedness of gender differences to attitudes and motivation needs to explore and investigate more. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the students' attitudes toward the English language and their motivation toward English language teaching based on gender differences in a state junior high school in Banyumas Regency, Central Java, Indonesia. There were 38 male and 32 female students who participated in this research. This research used a survey adapted from the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) and interviews in collecting the data. The researchers employed descriptive statistics and MANOVA for quantitative data and the Miles and Huberman model for qualitative data analysis. The findings showed a significant difference and effect of gender differences on the students' attitudes and motivation. Both male and female students revealed moderately high attitudes and motivation. However, female students showed a higher average score of the survey result. Less practice in real-life communication and limited exposure was the reason why the male students' have lower results in their attitudes and motivation toward English learning. Thus, providing authentic materials and exposure became some of the key points to improve meaningful learning experiences.

Relationship Between Students’ Attitudes, Towards Kiswahili and Kiswahili Performance in secondary schools in Vihiga County

“…The findings implied that students with positive attitudes toward Kiswahili performed better than those with negative attitudes toward the subject. The study agreed with that of Sabiq et al (2021) conducted in Indonesia, which indicated that both male and female students revealed moderately high attitudes and motivation toward English subjects; however, female students showed a higher average score in the survey.…”

“…From the study findings, it was evident that attitudes played a major role in students' performance. Sabiq et al (2021) used the word gender to refer to males and females' cultural characteristics. Gender was a basic categorisation that was recognised and followed in all human cultures as a source of defining a person and social identity; gender gaps were thought to affect mood and motivation as well as the learning process.…”

Chilean Primary Learners’ Motivation and Attitude towards English as a Foreign Language

“…Female participants' mini-AMTB scores were found to be higher than those of male participants" (p. 75). Similarly, in another study with secondary students, Sabiq et al [74] showed that female students had higher average scores on the four constructs of attitudes and motivation. Finally, a study carried out with elementary learners in Japan [75] found that female learners showed better quality motivation to learn language, with higher intrinsic regulation.…”

Peningkatan Tingkah Laku Positif Murid Bermasalah Pembelajaran Terhadap English For Communication Melalui Kaedah I-PICK

“…Dalam hal ini, faktor biologi (kadar kematangan yang berbeza), neuropsikologi (perbezaan strategi kognitif dalam menyelesaikan tugasan), dan faktor budaya yang berbeza (hubungan sosial ibu bapa dengan anak lelaki dan perempuan) didapati mempengaruhi pemerolehan bahasa dalam kalangan MBP (Rinali et al 2022). Namun begitu dapatan kajian ini tidak selari dengan kajian, kajian lepas banyak membuat perbandingan untuk melihat perbezaan perubahan tingkah laku positif murid lelaki dan perempuan terhadap pembelajaran Bahasa Inggeris (Paradewari & Mbato 2018;As Sabiq et al 2021;Pirmoradian & Chalak 2022). Perkembangan mental dan fizikal yang berbeza antara lelaki dan perempuan memberikan kesan kepada penguasaan Bahasa Inggeris bagi kedua-dua kumpulan jantina ini.…”