The impact of gender on attainment in learning English as a foreign language

This study examined the impact of gender on students’ achievement in learning English as a foreign language in secondary and higher vocational schools in Poland, as well as teachers’ and stu-dents’ opinions concerning the importance of this influence. The collected data provided ample evidence that girls achieved significantly better results than boys. Such results support the socio-linguistic finding that female students outperform males as they are more open to new linguistic forms in the target language and eradicate interlanguage forms that deviate from target lan-guage norms more readily than their male counterparts (Ellis, 2012). However, these findings were not reflected in the opinions of the student and teacher participants. Both parties held a strong conviction that gender played no major role in learning English. The article concludes by outlining some implications for educational policy makers and foreign language teachers.446176353Studies in Second Language Learning and Teachin