An Action Research Of Gender Stereotype Intervention In High School Students’ English Learning

English Gender stereotype is prevalent among Chinese students,including high school students.It is generally believed that girls are in born more suitable to learn English than boys.This kind of English gender stereotype has a certain negative impact on boys.This 6-month action research was conducted on year 10 students by a master and English teacher in a high school between Sep.2021 and Feb.2022.It addressed the gender stereotype concerning English learning and improved male students’ English academic performance by an intervention program.Based on the“Identity Threat Model” theory proposed by Major and O’Brien,this research applied a series of intervention strategies based on situational cues,collective representation,and personal characteristics at different stages.The action research was conducted to explore to what extent these intervention strategies could decrease or eliminate the impact of negative gender stereotypes on English learning.To be specifically,it focused on the following three questions:1.What specific problems does the negative English gender stereotype bring about?2.What has been changed during the intervention program?3.How do students’ negative gender stereotypes change under different intervention strategies?Both quantitative and qualitative methods are adopted in the research,and the data were in forms of questionnaires,interviews,teaching diaries,and English test scores before,during and after the intervention program.Through data analysis,the researcher drew the following conclusions:1.Negative English gender stereotype has negative impacts on high school students’ subject interest,classroom participation,and subject attitudes;2.The action research has significantly reduced the negative English gende r stereotype of high school students,increased their interest,corrected their attitudes,improved self-confidence and boosted their English test scores;but it did not significantly impact on classroom participation.3.Intervention strategies based on sit uational cues help create a good environment to reduce negative English gender stereotype;4.Intervention strategies based on collective representation can effectively increase the subject interest,correct subject attitudes,and reduce negative English gender stereotypes;5.Intervention strategies based on personal characteristics can boost high school students’ subject self-confidence,but they have little effect on classroom participation.This research demonstrates that based on the “identity threat model” theory proposed by Major and O’Brien,high school students’ negative English gender stereotypes can be reduced through a series of intervention strategies.The findings provide new ideas for many English teachers.The researcher will apply the findings to practical teaching practice,and further improve the specific strategies.