Writing High-Frequency Words at Early Stages of L2 Acquisition: Gender and School Differences
Abstract
Within the field of education, there is controversy as to whether the gender of students and the type of school they attend have an impact on the processes of teaching and learning a second language. The aim of this study is to determine whether these elements might be related to the writing of certain high-frequency words in English, which appear in both the Dolch and Fry lists, in 623 Spanish students aged 8 and 9 years. Based on the SPSS analysis of the errors made by these students, a subsequent and more in-depth study was carried out. For this purpose, the following instruments were used: the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to identify the significant differences; the Kruskal-Wallis test to compare errors according to schooling (single-sex and co-ed schools); and the Mann-Whitney U-test to compare the errors according to students' gender. The results show that the type of school that students attended influenced the spelling of certain high-frequency words more than their gender. To have a stronger basis for conclusions, further collaboration among EFL teachers in all types of school and a systematic follow-up on the writing of high-frequency words over the course of the following school years would be necessary.
Downloads
References
Adams, A. M., & Simmons, F. R. (2019). Exploring individual and gender differences in early writing performance. Reading and Writing, 32(2), 235–263. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-018-9859-0
Antropova, S., Colt, F., & Lafita Lipperheide, M. (2019). Spelling performance by Spanish primary students using English as a Second Language: Analysis of the most common mistakes. 11th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, 514–522. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.21125/edulearn.2019
Aspiranti, K. B., & Hilton-Prillhart, A. (2021). The effect of a tablet-mediated flashcard intervention on the acquisition and maintenance of sight-word phrases. School Psychology Review, 50, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/2372966X.2020.1865777
Ahslund, I., & Boström, L. (2018). Teachers’ perceptions of gender differences: What about boys and girls in the classroom? International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 17(4), 28–44. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.17.4.2
Babayiğit, S. (2015). The dimensions of written expression: Language group and gender differences. Learning and Instruction, 35, 33–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2014.08.006
Below, J. L., Skinner, C. H., Fearrington, J. Y., & Sorrell, C. A. (2010). Gender differences in early literacy: Analysis of kindergarten through fifth-grade dynamic indicators of basic early literacy skills probes. School Psychology Review, 39(2), 240–257. https://doi.org/10.1080/02796015.2010.12087776
Bialystok, E., Luk, G., & Kwan, E. (2009). Scientific studies of reading learning to read: Interactions among languages and writing systems bilingualism, biliteracy, and learning to read: Interactions among languages and writing systems. Scientific Studies of Reading, 9(1), 43–61. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532799xssr0901
Brozo, W. G., Sulkunen, S., Shiel, G., Garbe, C., Pandian, A., & Valtin, R. (2014). Reading, gender, and engagement. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57(7), 584–593. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.291
Camps, J., & Vierheller, E. (2018). Single-sex schools in Spain: A qualitative analysis of the reasoning and perceptions of their principals. Revista Española de Pedagogía, 76(269), 101-117. https://doi.org/10.22550/REP76-1-2018-05
Chuy, M., & Nitulescu, R. (2014). PISA 2009. Explaining the gender gap in reading through reading engagement and approaches to learning. Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC). https://bit.ly/3LIgVBT
Chiu, M. M. (2018). Contextual influences on girls’ and boys’ motivation and reading achievement: Family, schoolmates, and country. In P. Orellana García & P. Baldwin Lind (Eds.), Reading achievement and motivation in boys and girls: Field studies and methodological approaches (pp. 49-63). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75948-7_3
Cordeiro, C., Castro, S. L., & Limpo, T. (2018). Examining potential sources of gender differences in writing: The role of handwriting fluency and self-efficacy beliefs. Written Communication, 35(4), 448-473. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0741088318788843
Cunningham, P. M. (2017). Phonics they use: Words for reading and writing. Pearson Education Ltd.
Dang, T. N. Y. (2020). High-frequency words in academic spoken English: Corpora and learners. ELT Journal, 74(2), 146–155. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccz057
Dolch, E. W. (1936). A basic sight vocabulary. The Elementary School Journal, 36(6), 456–460. https://doi.org/10.1086/457353
Dwarte, M. (2014). The impact of single-sex education on African American reading achievement: An analysis of an urban middle school’s reform effort. The Journal of Negro Education, 83(2), 162. https://doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.83.2.0162
Farisiyah, U., Kartowagiran, B., & bin Hassan, A. (2021). English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning assessment in single-sex and co-educational classrooms. REID (Research and Evaluation in Education), 7(1), 57-65. https://doi.org/10.21831/reid.v7i1.41644
Frost, R. L. A., Monaghan, P., & Christiansen, M. H. (2019). Mark my words: High frequency marker words impact early stages of language learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 45(10), 1883–1898. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000683
Fry, E. (2000). 1000 instant words: The most common words for teaching reading, writing, and spelling. Teacher Created Resources., Inc.
Hartshorne, J. K., & Ullman, M. T. (2006). Why girls say ‘holded’ more than boys. Developmental science, 9(1), 21-32. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2005.00459.x
Hayes, A.R., Pahlke, E.E. & Bigler, R.S. (2011). The efficacy of single-sex education: Testing for selection and peer quality effects. Sex Roles, 65, 693–703. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-010-9903-2
Hu, X., & McGeown, S. (2020). Exploring the relationship between foreign language motivation and achievement among primary school students learning English in China. System, 89, 102199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2020.102199
Hussain, S. (2020). A comparison of students’ academic achievement in English in single-sex and co-educational schools. Review of Economics and Development Studies, 6(2), 645–655. https://doi.org/10.47067/reads.v6i2.230
Hyde, J. S. (2005). The gender similarities hypothesis. American Psychologist, 60(6), 581–592. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.60.6.581
Inzlicht, M., & Ben-Zeev, T. (2000). A threatening intellectual environment: Why females are susceptible to experiencing problem-solving deficits in the presence of males. Psychological Science, 11(5), 365–371. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00272J
Jiménez-García, E., & Verde-Romera, A. M. (2021). Los hábitos lectores de niños de educación primaria y análisis de contextos familiares y escolares. Revista Inclusiones, 8(Extra 5), 564-586. https://revistainclusiones.org/index.php/inclu/article/view/2512
Kaushanskaya, M., Gross, M., & Buac, M. (2013). Gender differences in child word learning. Learning and Individual Differences, 27, 82–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2013.07.002
Kim, Y. S., Al Otaiba, S., Wanzek, J., & Gatlin, B. (2015). Toward an understanding of dimensions, predictors, and the gender gap in written composition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 107(1), 79–95. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037210
Kramer, J. H., Delis, D. C., Kaplan, E., O’Donnell, L., & Prifitera, A. (1997). Developmental sex differences in verbal learning. Neuropsychology, 11(4), 577–584. https://doi.org/10.1037/0894-4105.11.4.577
Kuperman, V., Bar-On, A., Bertram, R., Boshra, R., Deutsch, A., Kyröläinen, A. J., Mathiopoulou, B., Oralova, G., & Protopapas, A. (2021). Prevalence of spelling errors affects reading behavior across languages. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 150(10), 1974–1993. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001038
Lundberg, I., Larsman, P., & Strid, A. (2012). Development of phonological awareness during the preschool year: The influence of gender and socio-economic status. Reading and Writing, 25, 305–320. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-010-9269-4
Manu, M., Torppa, M., Eklund, K., Poikkeus, A. M., Lerkkanen, M. K., & Niemi, P. (2021). Kindergarten pre-reading skills predict Grade 9 reading comprehension (PISA Reading) but fail to explain gender difference. Reading and Writing, 34, 753–771. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-020-10090-w
McTigue, E. M., Schwippert, K., Uppstad, P. H., Lundetræ, K., & Solheim, O. J. (2021). Gender differences in early literacy: Boys’ response to formal instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 113(4), 690–705. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000626
Muntoni, F., & Retelsdorf, J. (2018). Gender-specific teacher expectations in reading—The role of teachers’ gender stereotypes. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 54, 212-220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.06.012.
Naglieri, J. A., & Rojahn, J. (2001). Gender differences in Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, and Successive (PASS) cognitive processes and achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93(2), 430–437. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.93.2.430
Nation, P., & Hunston, S. (2013). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139858656
Nation, P., & Newton, J. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL. Listening and speaking. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203891704
Oga-Baldwin, W., & Fryer, L. (2020). Girls show better quality motivation to learn languages than boys: Laten profiles and their gender differences. Heliyon, 6(5), e04054. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04054
Pearson, C. M. (2017). Real boys don’ t do language and literacy--or do they ? MITESOL Journal: An Online Publication of MITESOL, 1(1), Article 3.
Reilly, D., Neumann, D., & Andrews, G. (2019). Gender differences in reading and writing achievement: Evidence from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). American Psychologist, 74(4), 445-458. https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/amp0000356
Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (1986). Approaches and methods in language teaching (pp. 31–44). Cambridge University Press.
Rinaldi, P., Pasqualetti, P., Volterra, V., & Caselli, M.C. (2021). Gender differences in early stages of language development. Some evidence and possible explanations. Journal Neuroscience Research, Advanced online publication, 1-11, https://doi.org/10.1002/jnr.24914
Riordan, C. (2015). Single-sex schools: A place to learn. Rowman&Littlefield.
Robinson, D. B., Mitton, J., Hadley, G., & Kettley, M. (2021). Single-sex education in the 21st century: A 20-year scoping review of the literature. Teaching and Teacher Education, 106, 103462. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2021.103462
Rugutt, J. K., & Chemosit, C. C. (2020). Achievement differences between students in single-sex schools and students in coeducational schools: A hierarchical linear modeling approach. In Handbook of Research on Integrating Computer Science and Computational Thinking in K-12 Education (pp. 317-337). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-1479-5.ch017
Schmitt, N., Jiang, X., & Grabe, W. (2011). The percentage of words known in a text and reading comprehension. The Modern Language Journal, 95(1), 26–43. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2011.01146.x
Schmitt, N., & Schmitt, D. (2020). Vocabulary in language teaching. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108569057
Scholes, L. (2019). Differences in attitudes towards reading and other school-related activities among boys and girls. Journal of Research in Reading, 42(3–4), 485–503. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.12279
Sheymardanov, S. (2019). The analysis and research prospects of single-sex education. Proceedings of the 2019 5th International Conference on Education and Training Technologies, 4–7. https://doi.org/10.1145/3337682.3337685
Sigmundsson, H., Eriksen, A. D., Ofteland, G. S., & Haga, M. (2018). Gender gaps in letter-sound knowledge persist across the first school year. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 301. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00301
Spencer, K. (2007). Predicting children’s word-spelling difficulty for common English words from measures of orthographic transparency, phonemic and graphemic length and word frequency. British Journal of Psychology, 98(2), 305–338. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712606X123002
Stotsky, S., & Denny, G. (2012). Single-sex classrooms and reading achievement: An exploratory study. Journal of School Choice, 6(4), 439-464. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712606X123002
Warrington, M., & Younger, M. (2003). ‘We decided to give it a twirl’: Single-sex teaching in English comprehensive schools. Gender and Education, 15(4), 339–350. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540250310001610553
Webb, S., & Nation, P. (2017). How vocabulary is learned. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.25170/ijelt.v12i1.1458
Wei, Z., Wang, X. J., & Wang, D. H. (2012). From distributed resources to limited slots in multiple-item working memory: A spiking network model with normalization. Journal of Neuroscience, 32(33), 11228–11240. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0735-12.2012
West, M. (Ed.). (1953). A general service list of English words: With semantic frequencies and a supplementary word-list for the writing of popular science and technology. Longman.
Westwood, P. (2005). Spelling: Approaches to teaching and assessment. ACER Press.
Williams, G. J., & Larkin, R. F. (2013). Narrative writing, reading and cognitive processes in middle childhood: What are the links? Learning and Individual Differences, 28, 142–150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2012.08.003
Wilsenach, C., & Makaure, P. (2018). Gender effects on phonological processing and reading development in Northern Sotho children learning to read in English: A case study of grade 3 learners. South African Journal of Childhood Education, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/SAJCE.V8I1.546
Wharton-McDonald, R. M. (2018). The role of word recognition in beginning reading. Pivotal research in early literacy: Foundational Studies and Current Practices, 8(1), a546. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajce.v8i1.546
Wong, A., & Leeming, P. (2014). Using dictation to measure language proficiency. Language Education in Asia, 5(1), 160–169. https://doi.org/10.5746/LEiA/14/V5/I1/A13/Wong_Leeming
Yasin, B., Azim, M., & Qayyum, A. (2020). Co-education versus single-gender education: Influence of different educational system on the student self-esteem, confidence level, and academic achievement in Pakistan. Gomal University Journal of Research, 36(2), 94-106. https://doi.org/10.51380/gujr-36-02-09
Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages: A psycholinguistic grain size theory. Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3–29. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-909.131.1.3
Copyright (c) 2023 Journal of Educational Research
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The articles and scientific documents published in RIE abide the following conditions:
1. The Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Murcia (the publisher) has the property rights (copyright) of all the documents published and allows the reuse under the user’s license indicated in point 2.
2. All documents are published in the digital edition of RIE under a Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 3.0 España (legal document) license. These documents can be copied, used, distributed, communicated and explained publicly if: i) the author(s) and its original source of publishing (magazine, publisher and URL of the document) are cited; ii) it is not used for commercial purpose; iii) the existence and the specifications about this license are mentioned.
3. Auto-archive’s conditions. The authors are allowed and encouraged to digitally distribute the pre-print versions (a version before evaluation) and/or post-print (a version that it is already evaluated and accepted to its publication). This promotes circulation and distribution earlier and can increase the citations and significance within the academic community.