Gender Difference And Chinese University Students' EFL Learning Strategy Use

The study investigated the gender differences in language learning strategy prefernces among Chinese university students of English as a foreign language (EFL). Participants of this study consisted of 628 second-year non-English majors at Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU) in Chengdu, China. As to determine the students' language learning strategy preferences, Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) was employed as a measure. Later, quantitative correlational data analyses such as mean, Pearson correlation, analysis of variance were performed in this study. Results showed that either students' overall strategy use or strategy use by each category all fell into medium level, with compensation strategies used most frequently. Results from the ANOVA Test also indicated that there was no significant gender difference on memory, cognitive, compensation, and metacognitive strategies while there were significant gender differences on affective and social strategies, all favoring female. Results of the current study partly testified the results of Green & Oxford's (1995) and Christine C. M. Goh & Kwah Poh Foong's (1997) studies, stating that in Chinese monolingual FL learning context gender played a role in affecting learners' language learning strategy choices. Moreover, it advanced the existing research results by confirming that gender difference only affects .Chinese university students' affective strategy and social strategy choices. Finally, the current study suggests teachers encourage and train their students to use more: active language learning strategies while recognizing the differences among each individual.