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CONTRASTS AND SIMILARITIES BETWEEN GENDERS IN TERMS OF
LEARNING A SECOND LANGUAGE
Qudratova Muborak Donayevna
3rd year student of the Faculty of Foreign
Languages and Literature of Termiz State
University
Annotatsiya:
This article is devoted to the study of the characteristics of male and female
knowledge in learning English as a second language. We tried to analyse the similarities and
differences in English in terms of gender. We came to the conclusion, that the verbal features of
the communicative behaviour of men and women very often cause misunderstandings or conflicts
between them. Verbal communication is limited only by the linguistic aspect, by which is meant
"the manner of speaking in such a way as to be understood."
Key words:
gender, male and female speech, analytical and logical functions, decode
language, visual and verbal functions, linguistics.
Over time, the gender of a person from the biological characteristics turned
into a socio-psychological characteristic. Thus, the concept of “gender”, which
means a set of cultural and social norms prescribed by society for people to fulfill,
depending on their biological characteristics. The concept of "gender" has already
gone beyond the scope of grammar.
This phenomenon is considered as a discursive, sociocultural and psycholinguistic
phenomenon.
Marked features of male and female speech is defined as a trend of
application. Very often, certain phenomena found in speech both men and women
are related to the characteristics of their character, mental make-up, profession,
social roles, but not by gender. Within the gender the markedness of the language,
first of all, it is necessary to consider the lexical language composition, since at the
lexical level, gender characteristics of a particular language.
Modern research shows that women do have a real advantage. A number of
reasons have been put forward for gender differences. Research has shown that
there is a difference in how men and women process language in the brain. The left
side of the brain processes analytical and logical functions, while the right side
controls visual and verbal functions. Experiments show that women use both sides
of the brain when they speak, while men only use the right side. Women are able to
use the analytical side of their brains to help decode language.
Studies in Europe, Asia and Latin America indicate that women learn
languages more holistically. Women tend to show more interest in the culture,
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country, and native speakers of the target language. Their teaching uses all four
key skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) and language elements
(vocabulary, grammar, etc.). Male peers tend to stick to a narrow circle of familiar
teaching methods. However, with the increase in freely available digital resources
such as podcasts, language apps and websites, this may well change.
Most of us would probably disagree with this statement, but why is it so
important to learning a language? Women appear to be better at communicating
and making more social connections than their male counterparts. And it is through
these connections that women get more opportunities to practice their listening and
speaking skills. They can ask questions and receive answers to improve their
understanding of the language they are learning. The resulting friendships often
provide even more motivation to learn a language. Of course, not all women are
talkative and not all men are reserved, so no doubt some men also benefit from
having good social skills as well.
This is perhaps the most controversial of the put forward reasons for gender
differences in language learning. Studies from the UK, Canada and Hungary show
that high school students are more likely to start language learning than their male
peers. Some researchers argue that this is because both boys and girls view
languages as feminine subjects, with boys preferring male-dominated subjects such
as mathematics and physics. Often this perception is reinforced by the
predominance of female language teachers, who thus act as role models for girls.
Obviously, all of the above reasons are based on broad generalizations.
While gender is a factor in language learning, it is not considered the most
important. Men can become great linguists too!
There is no scientific evidence to support the notion that one gender is better
at learning languages than the other. Many ideas about gender inclinations and
preferences stem from popular myths about the so-called hardware structure of the
brain. A wave of men are from Mars, women are from Venus—1990s-style self-
help books claimed that men and women communicate very differently. Despite
these mainstream assumptions, sociolinguistic studies have since undermined such
generalizations. In recent years, neuroscience research has contributed to
debunking the structure and characteristics of the “male brain” versus the “female
brain.”
Adherence to gender stereotypes can bring some comfort to those who feel
that the social world around them is changing too quickly. As professor of
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neuroscience Gina Rippon noted, life experience plays a decisive role in the
development of the brain. Along with other researchers in the field of
neuroplasticity, Rippon argues that our brain is plastic, constantly changing and
responding in response to external stimuli and experiences. The brain differs
depending on what kind of life a person leads, what kind of education he receives
or what kind of work he does.
It is becoming more and more socially acceptable for people to reject and
live outside the norms of what is “male” and what is “female”. Indeed, it is clear
that what were previously considered fixed concepts of masculinity or femininity
vary greatly in different contexts and around the world. Thus, our lives and social
roles are becoming less prescribed and less defined by traditional gender roles than
before.
What does all this tell us about language learning? First, it tells us that
conventional wisdom about the preferences and abilities of children and young
people is often unfounded. Instead, our preferences and abilities are often
determined by our life experiences.
We may unwittingly contribute to gender language ideologies by making
casual comments about how children behave or should behave and what they
might best fit into. For example, we can say something like “girls are good at
language subjects”. While we may perceive such a comment as harmless, it may
nevertheless be perceived by children as “girls are better suited for language
subjects than for subjects like math and science” or “languages are not for boys”.
Children and young people want to fit into society, so if they feel that what they
are doing is not “normative” for their gender or social group, they are more likely
to avoid it.
Thus, the linguistic aspect of gender is an actual trend in linguistics.
Linguistic studies of modes of expression gender in the language at all its levels,
the relationship between the expression of gender and the attribution of an
assessment to it, the description of gender stereotypes make it possible to describe
not only the anthropocentric language system, but also to explore the possibilities
and the boundaries of its subsystems associated with masculinity and femininity as
two hypostases of the human being.
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