Gender Differences Of Students Talk In EFL Class

Gender difference in language has been a popular issue in linguistics. Many a researchers abroad and home has made much achievement in this field. The author, based on the relevant discussions on gender difference of language in recent years, makes a systematic analysis of gender differences of students′talk in EFL class. Two methods questionnaire and tape-recording were adopted to analyse six discourse variables, such as topic choices, amount of speech, turns and floors, interruption, back channel responses and conversational self-repair. The results and findings of questionnaire and tape-recoding of gender differences of students′talk in EFL class were obtained by systematic analysis. Based on the analysis of questionnaire and tape-recording, some suggestions are put forward as follows: mixed-sex groups are considered in dividing the students in the discussion, in which students are stimulated more interest to utter more speech; Teachers can choose female students as head of the group, because females show more cooperation than males, they are more likely to stimulate the interest of their counterparts in order to keep the discussions going on, and thus, the opportunities of verbal output of students can be obtained. The verbal strategies are to be introduced by the teachers to help students lessen overt self-repairs and improve the fluency of their speech so as to improve the speaking ability of students.