Is What's Good for the Goose Good for the Gander? The Case of Male and Female Encouragement to Study French.

Abstract: Male disinterest in second and foreign language programs has been well documented in recent years. The influence of encouragement to study languages also has been thoroughly investigated. There is, however, little research that connects these two phenomena. This study investigated if gender differences exist in the amount of encouragement students receive to study French. Approximately 500 students in ninth grade completed a questionnaire; the data then were explored in interviews with students and teachers. Results indicated that encouragement is an important factor in the decision to study French and that boys are perceived to receive less encouragement than girls to study the language. Suggestions for how such gender differences can be addressed are discussed. Key words: enrollment, gender differences, mixed methodology, role of encouragement Language: French Introduction In a time of vanishing borders, international trade, and multiculturalism, the need to be able to speak more than one language is evident. Graddol (2004) went as far as to say that knowledge of one language may no longer be sufficient to compete in a global economy. Nevertheless, numerous recent studies in Australia and the United Kingdom have presented evidence demonstrating that a startling number of English-speaking boys are disinterested in learning a second or foreign language (Carr, 2002; Carr & Pauwels, 2006; Court, 2001; Jones & Jones, 2001; Pavy, 2006; Williams, Burden, & Lanvers, 2002). Data from a study involving more than 200 boys aged 12 to 18 in Australia and the United Kingdom, for example, indicated that males represent only 23% to 35% of students studying foreign languages at the most advanced levels of secondary school (Carr & Pauwels, 2006). Even more alarming were the data reported in a study by Pavy (2006) involving Catholic secondary schools in Australia: Of 5,804 students enrolled in a language other than English in Victoria, fewer than 10% were boys. Although very little related research has been conducted in North America, in Canada, a bilingual country where both English and French are the official languages, a growing number of Englishspeaking boys have lost interest in learning a second language. A large-scale study by Kissau (2006) reported that of 490 ninth grade French as a second language (FSL) students, almost 70% of those who planned to drop French the following year were male.1 While startling, these results are very similar to those reported in another Canadian study involving adolescent students in FSL: Netten, Riggs, and Hewlett (1999) found that of 155 students dropping French after ninth grade, approximately two-thirds were male. Although it was not the stated purpose in the study by Netten and colleagues (1999) to investigate for gender differences in FSL enrollment or the reasons behind such differences, researchers mentioned that the male participants were not aware of being encouraged to study French, whereas the female participants admitted to having received encouragement to study the language. This finding is, of course, noteworthy. Numerous studies examining student participation in school subjects have demonstrated the importance of parental, teacher, and peer encouragement (Bartram, 2006; Frank, Kehler, Lovell, & Davison, 2003; McGannon & Medeiros, 1995; Portelli, 2006). Despite the apparent influence of encouragement in student subject choice, very little research has been conducted to investigate male and female encouragement in the second or foreign language classroom. Using data from a large-scale study investigating gender differences in second language motivation (see Kissau, 2006), this article focuses on exploring whether male students receive less encouragement to study French than their female counterparts. For the purposes of this study, encouragement from three groups-parents, teachers, and peers-will be examined. …