Gender differences in reading comprehension

Previous research on gender differences in EFL reading comprehension performance is relatively scarce and has produced rather conflicting outcomes so far (cf. Phakiti 2003: 652). While in some studies gender differences could not be detected, other studies found that males outperformed females on

reading comprehension tasks or that the contrary proved to be true: female testees surpassed male testees.

Yazdanpanah conducted a study investigating the interaction of a reading comprehension test with gender in a School of Foreign Languages in North Cyprus. He used three different reading comprehension passages: two out of which could be identified, following Bügel’s and Buunk’s classification, as ‘male’ topics, i.e. ‘the latest technology used in the design of houses’ and ‘space travel’. The third passage featured a neutral topic, i.e. ‘how to make changes in life’. Yazdanpanah (2007: 71, 73) found that females scored slightly, though not significantly, higher than men on the reading test, despite the fact that two out of three reading passages featured male topics. This result made him conclude that text topic does not influence male and female performance on the reading test (Yazdanpanah 2007: 64). Yazdanpanah (2003: 68, 69) reports on a similar outcome by referring to a study by Lin & Wu, wherein performance differences of male and female Chinese university graduates on the reading comprehension part of an English proficiency exam, modeled after the TOEFL test, were examined. In this study again no differences in the performance of both genders could be detected.

These findings conform to a study by Phakiti undertaken in 2003. Phakiti examined gender differences in the context of an official EFL reading comprehension test in Thailand, administered to 384 first year undergraduate students in order to make high-stakes decisions regarding students’ achievement at university. Phakiti (2003: 668) found that males and females did not differ in their reading comprehension performance as assessed by a multiple choice reading comprehension test. Phakiti grouped testees into three proficiency levels according to their overall result. But male and female test takers of even the same achievement levels did not differ in their reading performance (Phakiti 2003: 672).

Yazdanpanah (2007: 68) refers to a highly interesting study by Brandtmeier, which took place in a non-EFL context, i.e. Spanish as a Foreign Language, in the United States. Brandtmeier’s study, investigating the effect of gender on reading comprehension of intermediate and advanced level students studying Spanish, produced divergent as well as interesting results. Her study

considered a ‘male’ topic, and another one on housewifery, a ‘female’ topic. While advanced level male and female test takers’ performance on the two texts did not significantly differ, intermediate level male and female test takers’ performance proved to be significantly different. Male testees outperformed their female counterparts on the text about boxing, whereas female test takers surpassed males on the female topic on housewifery.

An instance of male and female superiority on their respective topics in a reading comprehension test is also reported by Yazdanpanah (2007: 68) who refers to a study by Bügel and Buunk investigating the reading performance of Dutch EFL students. In this study females scored significantly higher on ‘female’ topics as ‘midwives, a sad story, marriage dilemma, and talks about style’, whereas their male counterparts outperformed them on male topics about ‘laser thermometers, volcanoes, cars, and football players’.

Still other studies found that female testees generally outperform males on reading tests. Phakiti (2003: 652) refers to a study conducted by Wen and Johnson in 1997 in the context of a standardized national proficiency test for tertiary-level English majors in China. They discovered that females scored significantly higher than males on the reading part of this standardized national proficiency test. These results correspond to those of a study conducted by Chavez in 2001, referred to by Phakiti (2003: 652). Chavez found that regardless of topics females demonstrated significantly higher levels of performance than males on a multiple choice reading test.

In conclusion, research has produced rather inconclusive evidence of gender differences on both reading comprehension performance and test format. Reasons for the non-uniformity of the results could be that especially in EFL studies the language background differs from study to study. Thus, cultural influences as well as models of what activities and disciplines are regarded as appropriate for males and females might play a role. Some 30 years ago scientific subjects might have been considered as truly male domains, while subjects as languages were seen as female subjects. This strict division into male and female domains, however, seems to have been loosening since then. Another reason for the differing results is that test formats across diverse subject domains, i.e. languages, mathematics, and medicine, were compared. Furthermore, the testing conditions under which the studies were conducted

differed from low-stakes to high-stakes contexts. Due to the fact that testing conditions might extensively influence the performance of learners (cf. Phakiti 2003: 68, Yazdanpanah 2007: 69), one reason for the differing results could be found in this non-uniformity of contexts. Thus, the present study is devoted to shed some light on gender differences in reading comprehension performance and test formats, a domain which is according to Yazdanpanah (2007: 69) in need of further research.