Monday 30 March 2009

Gender Issues

Gender issues

Anecdotal
seen as feminine subject
parental attitudes -subject for girls
role models - few male MFL teachers
boys like challenges, tasks, rules to follow
boys like sport, facts, ICT
boys like German more than French

Need to find evidence to support or refute some of these "facts"

Amanda Salt 2009, Belfast
"One of the great success stories of my year has to be the boy who showed an open dislike for Spanish last year yet has sent me the last two homeworks (created on Goanimate) early, and is visibly more relaxed in class."
http://amandasalt.blogspot.com/2009/03/creating-buzz.html

Mica 2009 on Comic Life
I am not sure if anyone of you has come across this software but it is great for MFL. This creates pages like a typical comic. I have used this to complete ER verbs and reflexive verbs unit. Pupils used cameras to take picture of their daily routine and added speech bubbles to their story. This really engaged some of my boys.

Australia
http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:K9rKigKw8PoJ:education.qld.gov.au/curriculum/area/lote/docs/boys-lote.doc+boys+primary+languages&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&client=safari
Languages are boring. Boys, in their own opinion, are less prepared to be bored than girls. Many of the boys talked nostalgically about their experience in primary school when languages had been more interactive and task-based, where they did things with the language rather than just ‘copy from the board or read out of the textbook'.

Concentration span (twice as long for girls Kruse 1992)

Jones and Coffey, Modern Foreign Languages 5-11 (course book)
ch 6pp95-96
use variety of methods

LOW, JOHNSTONE CONNACHER Evaluation of the Visiting Specialist
lower achieving boys tend to do better in German (than French) p28

Other possible sources in books
Clark, A. (1998) Gender on the agenda Factors motivating boys and girls in MFLs London: CILT
Doublier, M, Green, S. and Haworth, S. (1998) On est fou du foot/Football crazy London: CILT
Harris, V. (1992) Fair enough? (PF14) Equal opportunities and modern languages London: CILT
Jones, B. and Jones, G. (with Helen Demetriou, Peter Downes and Jean Rudduck) (2001) Boys’ performance in modern foreign languages. Listening to learners.London: CILT
Jones, B. and Swarbrick, A. (2005) It makes you think! Creating engagement, offering challenges (NPF4) London: CILT
Jones, B. (2005) Boosting boys’ motivation in MFL London: CILT
English government site:
Thanks o today's researchers
If you have any more references or points please add them in comments!

1 comment:

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