The Impact of Gender Differences on Chinese English Learners

Abstract

Gender differences caused by physiological and psychological factors has always been an important topic in the field of second language acquisition. Previous studies were mainly from Western countries, however, there has been no systematic cognition among the studies in China. Therefore, this paper mainly studies and sorts out the impact of gender differences on Chinese English learners. This paper explores the impact of gender differences on English learners in China from 2 aspects: learning strategies and learning styles. In terms of learning strategies, the findings for male and female students in terms of their choice of cognitive and metacognitive strategies seem to be more in favor of girls using these two types of strategies more than boys. In terms of learning styles, there are significant differences between visual and kinesthetic learning styles among students of different genders, with female students preferring visual learning styles and male students preferring kinesthetic learning styles. Moreover, males are more independent than females while females were more dependent than males; females tend to be more prudent while males tend to be more impulsive. Therefore, it is suggested that teachers should adopt diversified teaching methods and means according to the gender composition of students in English classes, so as to meet the needs of students of different genders, learning strategies and styles.