“Women are
better at language learning than men” - it is a well-known phenomenon for
everyone. Even in Kazakhstan, many women and girls opt for language and
education field rather than boys. One example is GSE classes –one male or no
male in the class, or just remember your ex-group from bachelor.
Many
studies on relationships between gender and language learning used difference
approach which addresses gender as a social category (Schmenk, 2004).
It assumes that male and female are fundamentally different; accordingly, their
preferences are discrepant. Therefore, this difference approach always supports
the idea that language education is a feminine domain. The article
by Schmenk breaks this common stereotype. The main idea of the author is that
“language learners are themselves constantly constructing and reconstructing
their identities in specific contexts and communities” (p.514). Schmenk points
out that many studies “continually reproduce and reinterpret prior beliefs”
about female superiority in language learning, because it is a
believed conception by all (p.519). People are used to believe in widespread
stereotypes about gender. In fact, language education is itself feminized. Due
to the constructed tradition that women choose language learning rather than
scientific or other fields, male and female learners naturally follow the
widespread stereotype (Schmenk, 2004).
From the
past time, Kazakhs always differentiated male and female, their positions and
roles because of the mentality and culture. And nowadays, looking at different
numbers of males and females in working or learning areas, we can say that
gender difference stereotype still exists.
The author
Schmenk makes good point to think about gender and language education from
other perspective and changed my mind that even though there are gender
differences, the choices should be done individually. The fact that there is
one male in language learning classroom or one female in scientific discipline
rejects the gender stereotypes and makes exception.
References:
Schmenk,
B. (2004). Language learning: A feminine domain? The role of stereotyping
in constructing gendered learner identities, TESOL Quarterly,
38(3), Gender and Language Education,514-524
Dear Almazhay!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with you that gender plays a significant and crucial role in our life. Sometimes parents bringing up their children forget about the fact that all people regardless their sex have different values, interests, hobbies. This makes the life harder when it impacts children' choice of future career. Males are regarded to be strong and smart, who as you said better at maths and physics.However the example of Shakespeare and Hipatia shows that gender differentiation is too general.
I believe that we have to raise our children with understanding of their gender, but pay attention on their nature and preference
Thank you for this topic!
Nice topic for a blog post! Gender issues are often under-examined and under-appreciated, when in fact they can help us explain so much about our society and our schools. Some suggestions:
ReplyDelete1) Try not to overgeneralize "...a well-known phenomenon for everyone".
2) Your second paragraph uses transitions like "accordingly" and "therefore" that may not necessarily correspond exactly to the connection between the ideas. The whole paragraph could use the "known-unknown" rule and pronouns to connect ideas, rather than simply using liking words or listing separate ideas.
This is a great topic for discussion. And I also agree with you and Schmenk that the choices should be done individually. Another reason for males to flee from language education and education in general, at least in Kazakhstan, is low salary. In fact, it is one of the lowest in the country. In turn, males and females are imposed with the societal norms through different agents (parents, media, peers, etc.), and they are expected to follow them. For instance, men have to support their family financially, therefore it is unlikely that they would choose a low-paid job as teacher. I have an uncle who is a professor and a rector of an institute, but even he has his own business because professor’s salary is not enough.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post!
ReplyDeleteI find myself in accord with you about individuality in major preference. I want here to continue the discussion raised by Arna, because I also think that specialty is heavily contingent on salary, especially for male students. That is why pedagogical faculty usually saturated with female students in our country. Here of relevance will be the catchphrase – “man being the bread-winner, woman the housekeeper”. International labor organization (n.d.) underpins this view, showing that “female employment is more concentrated in healthcare, public services, household services, education and the hotel and restaurant sector” (p. 1).
Ah, those gender issues never get old. How many times have I heard: "You can study languages and become a teacher - you're a girl, it's fine." My case only proved the existing stereotypes about abilities of different genders in different fields. But not all people fall under those categories. There are perfect engineers among girls and wonderful language learners among boys. The stereotypes exist to be dispelled. Thanks for touching upon this issue!
ReplyDeleteDear Almazhay,
ReplyDeleteThese gender issues seem to never grow old as mentioned by Shynar and I totally agree with this.
But let me be realistic, don't you feel we are overemphasizing this issue? Do you agree that we talk about gender issues too much these days? I personally think it is not that burning issue in Kz, there are many other things to worry and concern about rather than gender issues. I have never experienced inequality just because of my gender. Another thing is not to go too deep into deleting all gender belongings at all. This is like one of Russian contemporary writers says: "Let's then change all the words from their initial soundings. For example, why do we say "БАБочка" with this root showing gender. We then should start calling all "БАБочка" "ИНДИВИдочка" to avoid gender discrimination. Or why HIStory why not HERstory???" At some point we might start arguing on the issues like Why are you a man and I am a woman?
I agree children at schools should be somehow aware of their gender but do you think they grew until this age and NO one ever mentioned they were a girl or a boy to them? That's why overemphasizing seems to be exaggerating.