Gender differences in classroom interactions and preferences

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in classroom interactions and preferences by analysing data collected by a questionnaire, observations and interviews. The data were collected focussing on male and female attitudes towards the teacher’s gender, teacher’s body language, the task partner’s gender, the task type, speaking tasks, risk taking, using computers in the tasks, learning about English culture, misunderstanding and clarification, and oral correction feedback, in addition to the differences in the use of reading strategies and gender differences in topic preferences. Forty-seven international students in the UK participated in the research, 26 females and 21 males who were studying on a pre-sessional course in the Language Academy. The results of the quantitative and qualitative data revealed a number of differences in the participants’ interaction patterns. Further, many preferences between the participants mediated by gender factor was recorded. The study has provided many recommendations and suggestions for the future studies.