Article Review

        A.   ARTICLE AND AUTHOR BACKGROUND

The title of the article I have chosen to review is “Gender Difference in CALL Programs for English as a Second Language Acquisition”, published in 2007. The article was written by Cheng-Chieh Lai, a PhD student in Educational Leadership from Prairie View A&M University and Ming-Mu Kuo, an assistant professor in the Department of Foreign Language Instruction from Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages. Both authors have research interests in the field of Second Language Acquisition, Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL), Instructional Technology and Faculty Motivation.

  

         B. SUMMARY AND REVIEW

This research aims at studying the effects of gender differences on the application of CALL programs for second language acquisition. It stresses that gender difference is an important theme in linguistic education because it influences the design curriculum, teaching method, instructional strategy and students’ learning processes. From the biological viewpoint, females and males differ fundamentally in the cognitive ability and learning style. These differences derive both from basic physiological differences, such as differences in the development of brain and from differences in higher-level cortical functions. In order to conduct their research, the authors used a sample of 200 students comprising of 34 male students and 166 female students who were taking EFL courses and CALL programs in Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages in Taiwan. This research has both qualitative and quantitative data. The quantitative data was collected by means of a questionnaire which comprised of 4 sections that examined students’ learning attitude, efficiency and anxiety when they learn English with CALL programs. The researchers also conducted interviews with 5 male students and 5 female students from the same college. The interviews were conducted to explore their learning barriers on the application of CALL programs on students’ genders. The interviews consisted of 10 open-ended questions, which provided data concerning the learning barriers on the application of CALL programs for the respondents. Out of the 250 surveys sent out, 200 were returned. The findings of the study are divided into four areas; learning attitude, learning efficacy, learning anxiety and learning barrier. As a summary of the findings, a majority of the male students who were surveyed claim that they enjoy using CALL programs to learn English and that would spend at least six hours per week on the Internet to enhance their English learning. However, a majority of the female students state that they find learning English with CALL programs to be difficult as well as uncomfortable. The male students however, found that they were more comfortable using CALL programs to learn English. According to the results of the interviews, the participating female students expressed that their main language barrier for learning English using CALL programs in that they lack related computer technology and training or they are not familiar with the procedures of computer learning software. On the other hand, the male students showed more confidence of technology which ultimately lowered the barriers they had with learning English using CALL programs. According to the authors, the reason for this may be the fact that male students are usually encourages in technology learning and have more opportunities for technology practice. Respondents also stressed that the appropriate software of CALL programs is too expensive and often not available in the school’s computer labs. Therefore the problem for male students learning English with CALL programs is whether the software is available rather than their computer skills. As a conclusion, the authors state that although both male and female students confirmed that CALL programs is helpful for strengthening their English skills, make students have more positive learning attitude and less learning anxiety toward the use of CALL programs for their learning than female students. They then recommend that EFL teachers should create more training opportunities to increase female students’ technology skills. Schools should also purchase more CALL program software in order to increase students’ English learning practices and reduce the learning barriers.

            This research definitely interests me on a more personal level. I have always been interested in the areas concerning gender disparity and desensitisation. The reality is, that even though feminists may think that males and females should be equals in every way, we will always remain different from each other and that affects our way of life, especially our way of learning. Research has shown that females have a higher tendency to learn language in a slightly faster pace than our male counterparts. However, when it comes to technology, females feel anxious and uncomfortable due to the lack of technological knowledge and skills needed to use these programs. This paper was fairly well conducted and written. However, my only suggestion on how it could be improved is to standardize the sample size. The sample used by the researchers consisted of 34 male students and 166 female students. This is a huge disparity which could possibly affect the viability of their findings. In my opinion, if the number of male and female students were equal, their findings would definitely be more convincing. Finally, I feel that this research can be applied to our Malaysian scenario at present. Educators and practitioners of the education system in Malaysia should explore this area of education further. If we can acknowledge the disparity that exists in the cognitive ability between a male and a female student, we can design a curriculum that can further accommodate the learning needs of our students. Furthermore, schools in Malaysia should also dedicate more lessons for students to acquire computer skills and for them to get comfortable with CALL and its benefits in the learning of English as a second language. CALL may be the future of our education system but we still need to acknowledge that teachers and students need to dedicate more time in this area and schools should also purchase more CALL software and computer in order to facilitate the growing number of students who could possibly access these software in order to enhance their acquisition of the English language. 

Read the full article here!