Gender Differences In Cognitive Ratings Of English Words Among Chinese EFL Learners

Gender differences in mode of thinking,behavioral habits,cognitive abilities,second language acquisition as well as second language proficiency have always been a much-debated topic in the field of linguistics,neurology and psychology.Among them,a large number of experiments have shown that males and females also have indispensable differences in language processing and emotional perception.Since the 1990 s,linguists abroad have started to explore gender differences in cognitive ratings of words through various research methods.However,domestic studies on cognitive ratings of second language words are not common.Studies on gender differences in cognitive ratings of second language words have not been widely carried out either.Therefore,based on the previous studies on cognitive ratings of words,the present study establishes a database of cognitive ratings of second language words and observes the gender differences in cognitive ratings.To be specific,there are two research questions in the present study.The first one is to explore whether there are general gender differences in cognitive ratings of second language words in such five variables as valence,arousal,dominance,concreteness and familiarity.If the gender differences do exist,the second research question is to find the words with the largest gender differences in each variable.The present study adopted paper-and-pencil procedures for exploring the gender differences among 1576 Chinese EFL learners.Among them,there were 530 valid ratings of males and 1046 valid ratings of females.Through the analysis and comparison of ratings of male and female participants,the present study yielded the following conclusions:(1)Among the ratings of valence,arousal,dominance,concreteness and familiarity,significant gender differences were only observed in cognitive ratings of arousal in general as well as in ratings of concrete words;(2)Significant gender differences observed in ratings of individual words might be related to the gender differences in emotional perception and cognition.As for valence,arousal,dominance,concreteness and familiarity,the largest gender differences were observed in ratings of words “end”,“her”,“disable”,“they” and“ass”,which obtained much higher ratings in males than females.The largest gender differences in cognitive ratings were also found in words “envy”,“barbecue”,“cheer”,“famous” and “moral”,which males rated significantly lower than females.In the present study,the major findings not only provided evidence for gender differences in cognitive ratings of second language words,but also offered a complete database of cognitive ratings of second language words as well.Meanwhile,with regard to the second language teaching,the gender differences in cognitive perception of second language words will help teachers to further realize and understand gender differences in the teaching process,therefore promoting the development of individualized teaching.