An investigation into gender and motivation regarding English language acquisition in secondary schools in Hong Kong

Abstract

Although the status of Putonghua is perceived to be on the rise progressively in post-colonial Hong Kong, the tremendous social prestige enjoyed by English language is still dominating this city, which resulted in educationalists’ attention on students’ achievements in English language, especially after female students were found to out-compete their male counterparts in English studies for years. In order to yield more reference for educationalists concerning this phenomenon, a newly developed approach, namely the Motivational Self System Model (Dörnyei, 2009), was adopted to investigate the gender differences regarding secondary school students’ motivation and their English achievements in Hong Kong. 30 male and 30 female freshmen studying in various departments in the University of Hong Kong participated in this study. Their level of motivation in English learning was measured through a questionnaire consisted of 30 questions scored on a 7-point Likert scale. Interviews were conducted afterwards to generate qualitative data so as to assist quantitative analysis. By using independent sample t-test, Pearson correlation test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), it was found that female respondents showed higher levels of language learning experience than male respondents, but learners’ English achievements were only positively correlated to their levels of ideal self. The relationship of gender, motivation and English achievement was therefore re-examined. It was discovered that Arts students tended to out-perform their Science peers in English studies. Meanwhile, male and female learners were found to dominate Science stream and Arts stream respectively owing to the social facet of their ideal selves. As a result, the gender differences regarding secondary school students’ English achievements were highly likely to be originated from males’ domination in Science stream and that of females in Arts stream. This brought about pedagogical implications for educators, in that more resources should be reallocated for Science students regarding English learning.