The Influence of Gender Differences on Chinese English Learners’ Oral Ability

Abstract

Oral English ability has been one of the essential domains in foreign language learning. The study of gender difference is a very common research topic, and many research fields have paid attention to it, including experts from social sciences, linguistics, and culture. According to previous findings, most researchers in various fields agreed that there are gender differences in the ability to oral English. Some scholars pointed out that gender differences in language learning are reflected in the spelling and pronunciation of words. Women tend to use diverse strategies in language learning, so they learn more efficiently. Others concluded that the gender difference in language is determined by the inevitable reflection of the values of a specific society and the way of national thinking in language. In terms of the relationship between gender and oral English ability, most researchers found that the oral expression ability of women is better than that of men based on different factors. Thus, this paper focuses on the potential impact of gender differences on Chinese learners’ oral English ability. Firstly, this paper introduces five aspects of gender differences in Chinese learners’ spoken English, including pronunciation, grammatical structure, vocabulary usage, the difference in communicative contexts, and learning ability. Then, by analyzing the causes of these gender differences in biology, learning strategies, social status, and psychology, the conclusion is clear that women have certain advantages over men in learning spoken English, even though it is temporary and will change with other factors. The contribution of this paper is that it inspires future researchers to explore more about the potential gender differences in language learning and the effective strategies .to cope with this phenomenon.