Correlation Between Gender Differences In Classroom Behaviors And Their Effects On English Achievements

Studies on gender differences associated with language have become a hot topic since the 1970s;however,they mainly focus on gender differences in pronunciation,vocabulary, grammar and these kinds of internal features of language.Recently,with the flourishing of inter-disciplinary approach,the orientation of gender studies has changed from intra-linguistic to inter-linguistic perspectives,which involve scholars from various fields such as sociology,women's study,anthropology,pedagogy, probing into this topic from different angles and putting forward different theories to explore the origin,so this field—language and gender in second and foreign language learning and teaching begins to develop.Most of the previous studies on the subject of language and gender in second and foreign language learning and teaching have been conducted in Western countries,and the topic mainly focuses on daily conversations,working conversations and family conversations.In China,till now the investigation of gender differences on classroom behaviors of middle school students has not received adequate attention.So this paper aims at investigating differences in classroom behaviors of male and female students in the senior middle school and their influences on English achievements in Chinese context. The present study systematically investigates different classroom behaviors of male and female students at different English levels in the senior middle school,and analyzes the relationship between classroom behaviors and English achievement.The major instrument of the study is adopted from the Classroom Behavior Inventory designed by Elisabeth Hayes(1992,377),the participants the author chose belong to Shiyan Middle School in Zhengzhou,Henan Province.The participants were divided into three groups:in Group 1,there were 40 students with higher English proficiency,20 males and 20 females;in Group 2,40 students with English proficiency of intermediate level,20 males and 20 females,and in Group 3,40 students with lower English proficiency,20 males and 20 females.By employing the SPSS 13.0(Statistical Package for Social Sciences 13.0) software, several statistical analyses such as Independent Sample T-test,Pearson Correlation Analysis and Multiple Regression Analyses were employed.The results of the research are as follows:(1) The result of independent sample T-test shows that for the participants in Group 1,the statistical significant difference exists in just one factor—support-seeking; for Group 2,the statistical significant difference exists in those four factors:verbal participation,learning orientation,support-seeking and self-disclosure;and for Group 3, the statistical significant difference exists in those three factors:learning orientation, support-seeking,and self-disclosure.(2) The results from correlation and multiple regression analyses are:For the male participants in Group 1,the stepwise regression analysis shows that there is a significantly positive relationship between verbal participation and English achievements,and for the female participants in this group,the stepwise regression analysis indicates that there is a significantly positive relationship between self-assurance and English achievements;for the male participants in Group 2, the stepwise regression analysis shows that English achievements have a significantly relationship with the two factors,namely,learning orientation and self-disclosure, learning orientation is negatively related to English learning achievement and self-disclosure is positively related to English learning achievement;for the female participants in this group,the stepwise regression analysis shows that no factors are relevant to English learning achievements;for the male participants in Group 3,the stepwise regression analysis shows that no factors have a significant relationship with English learning achievement,and for the female participants in this group,the stepwise regression analysis shows that the factor—self-assurance is negatively related to English achievement.Lastly,this paper deals with the main findings of the research,its pedagogical implications,limitations and some suggestions for further studies in the classroom behaviors.