Research On The Relationship Between Gender Difference And English Academic Achievement Of Senior High School Students And Relevant Strategies

As is mentioned by American linguist Ellis (1994) in his The Study of SecondLanguage Acquisition, in the process of the second language acquisition, thelearners’ individual differences including gender difference have an influence ontheir foreign language learning. Gender difference in senior high school students’English learning is reflected in many aspects. One aspect is the difference in maleand female students’ English academic achievement. However, in the process ofEnglish teaching in middle schools, the students’ gender difference hasn’t beenpaid much attention to. On the basis of previous researches and with the guidanceof individual difference theory and Humanistic learning theory, in this thesis, theauthor has meant to prove the existence of gender difference by analyzingstudents’ scores and look into the reasons for the difference, then take effectivemeasures to narrow gender difference in male and female students’ academicachievement.Using literature method the author has found that of many factors affectinggender difference in English learning, learning strategy should not be neglected.In the new Basic Education Curriculum Reform it is required that teachers shouldpay more attention to developing the students’ learning strategies. Therefore, theauthor tried to train the students’, especially male students’ metacognitive strategyin planning, monitoring and evaluating in their English learning. The author tookClass7and Class8in Hailar No.2High School as the experimental group, andthe rest science classes in Senior Three as the control group. Taking the students’scores in the first simulated examination in Senior Three as the pre-test and thestudents’ scores in2011NMET as the post test, the author compared male andfemale students’ English scores by using SPSS17.0. The findings are that in thepre-test, there is significant difference in male and female students’ English scores;the difference in the experimental group and the control group is almost the same.By contrast, in the post test,2011NMET, the difference in the NMET scoresbetween male and female students in the experimental group is not significant while the difference in the control group is still significant as usual. In addition,the mean score of the students in the experimental group is much higher than thatin the control group.It is shown in the research that the difference in male and female students’English academic achievement in senior high schools is an objective existence,but the difference is not always the same. Only by paying more attention to thegender difference in teaching and taking efficient measures can we narrow the gapin difference as well as promote full development between male and femalestudents, and therefore improving teachers’ teaching efficiency.