Exploring the gender effect on the pattern of EFL teacher-student interaction

Abstract

The present study sought to investigate the effects of gender on interactional patterns of Iranian EFL classroom. Participants were 120 male and female EFL upper intermediate learners who were chosen from different language institutes in Isfahan, Iran. Besides, 12 teachers participated in the study in four types of classes: female teachers in single-gender classrooms, male teachers in single-gender classrooms, female teachers in mixed-gender classrooms and male teachers in mixed-gender classrooms. Tsui’s Framework of discourse speech acts was employed as the instrument. Plus, patterns of interactions were investigated according to teachers’ question types. In so doing, frequencies of subcategories of ‘initiating’ category in framework, referential and display questions were calculated for four types of classes. Findings indicated that, firstly, distributions of components of interactional patterns of initiation and types of questions were not fair. Secondly, mixed-gender classes included more effective patterns than single-gender classes. Thirdly, both male and females teachers paid more attention to the opposite gender in the classrooms. Findings of this study can be taken into account by teachers, especially those in mixed-gender classes that pay equal attention to both genders.