Investigating Teachers and Students’ Attitudes towards the Impact of Gender on EFL learners’ Oral Performance

Abstract

English as an international language is used as a means of communication between people all over the world. Hence, oral proficiency is very essential for EFL learners to achieve an effective communication. However, mastering the oral skill seems to be a challenging task in EFL context since it is considered as the most difficult aspect of language learning. In this regard, this study aims at investigating gender impact on EFL learners' oral performance. Female students are generally known as being better performing the spoken language than male students. The latter are assumed to be less competent in oral performance. To reach the objective of this current research and in order to check the former hypothesis, a descriptive analytical method was followed. It utilized two questionnaires; the first was distributed to 120 master-one and master-two students including 85 females and 35 males from the department of English at 08 Mai 1945 Guelma University, while the second was devoted to 17 teachers who teach master degrees at the same department. The obtained results confirm the research hypothesis in which both students and teachers from the chosen sample agreed that female EFL learners outperform male EFL learners in speaking performance. Despite the limitations that were encountered in this study, some recommendations and suggestions are provided to aid teachers and students in conducting future researches.