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Are women better at learning languages? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| aokoye Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5345 days ago 235 posts - 453 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, Norwegian, Japanese | Message 33 of 76 08 October 2013 at 6:24pm | IP Logged | ||
I understand what you're trying to say as far as the class being able to be judged but I disagree. This is one course and one group of people. You can't make a very good basis of anything based off of one instance (in this class one course). Are people coming into the class with similar backgrounds in German? Probably. But again, this one course out of the tens or hundreds that would make a useful study on the topic. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4173 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 34 of 76 08 October 2013 at 7:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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I wonder what the standard is that's being used to judge progress. Tests? Looking at my own language class this summer, there were 9 of us, fairly evenly split, and generally either complete beginners or having minimal prior knowledge. Out of that group, those of us who had the best "numbers" had all learned languages to a fairly decent level--lets just say it was "basic fluency" using HTLAL's standards. However, in other areas, we definitely were nowhere near the top. I'm not a very social person for example, and it's very hard for me to make small talk, so having to do that automatically was very difficult. We also had someone who was raised by two native speakers of the language, and it was reflected in his pronunciation. Then there were others who seemed to be really good at learning and reviewing vocabulary that was far beyond the level we were expected to reach.
Interestingly, I've noticed that some languages people study tend to fall disproportionately among one gender or another. I know many more men who studied German than women, and I know more women who studied Spanish than men. That's not a scientific observation by any means, but I still thought it was interesting! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 3886 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 35 of 76 08 October 2013 at 9:01pm | IP Logged | ||
I used the following criterie: Who do we go to when we need help with something? Who makes, by far, the fewest mistakes at the end of class, on the material just taught? Who can speak with the most complex sentences? Who can speak with the most ease? Note that we have a small class, and that we are spending 4 hrs each day together. Edited by Gemuse on 08 October 2013 at 9:02pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6401 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 36 of 76 08 October 2013 at 11:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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How many in the group overall are non-natives? It's another very important factor because most non-English native speakers learning German speak their native language ANDÂ English when they start.
When it comes to learning new stuff, they are more likely to know what the grammar terms mean and in general understand better how languages work. But that's a very superficial indicator because the short-term memory and concentration are involved. It matters far more how much progress all of you make in a week or in a month. Edited by Serpent on 08 October 2013 at 11:48pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 3886 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 37 of 76 09 October 2013 at 12:38am | IP Logged | ||
What does non-native mean? Non-native to what? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lakeseayesno Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico thepolyglotist.com Joined 4138 days ago 280 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, Japanese, Italian Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 38 of 76 09 October 2013 at 5:06am | IP Logged | ||
I don't think there's such a thing as a teaching method geared towards women. A teaching method geared towards a certain learning skill that your female classmates excel at? Maybe. Knowledge imparted in a certain manner by a female teacher doesn't get assimilated by females quicker just because we both happen to have the same set of chromosomes, you know? Case in point: I taught Japanese for several years, and in my top ten of best students, eight are male. All of them were very hardworking students, and my gender or manner of teaching had little to do with the effort and hours they put in. However, I did find a gender based trend--in general, men were usually better at grasping the theory (as I found they overwhelmingly did better at tests), but women had a tendency to be more participative and therefore were usually better at applying what they'd learned practically. However, even these trends varied widely between classes. Whatever the case may be, there'll always be people of both genders who excel at learning in a certain manner. In your next class, the top three may be men who respond better to the teacher's method. Who knows? 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| akkadboy Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5212 days ago 264 posts - 497 votes Speaks: French*, English, Yiddish Studies: Latin, Ancient Egyptian, Welsh | Message 39 of 76 09 October 2013 at 8:35am | IP Logged | ||
Just read that yesterday :
7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4426 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 40 of 76 09 October 2013 at 8:35am | IP Logged | ||
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A single language class of around 10 people is a ridiculously small sample size from which you can't prove
anything. We already have places in the world where everyone is expected to master a second language. Surely someone would have noticed by now if one sex was significantly outperforming the other. You might as well have asked if brown-skinned people learn faster than black. Now that would be a can of worms. 7 persons have voted this message useful |
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