Page 7 - ELG2111 Nov Issue 478

NEWS

Boys v girls: who’s really winning?

It looks as though males are doing better at English than females
this year, but as Melanie Butler explains, it’s not a clear result

he EF index, the annual
ranking of countries
by English language
Tlevels, has come up with
a remarkable finding: for the
first time, this year, men across
the globe beat women on their
language test.
The EF ranking rarely features
in the EL Gazette because the
actual evidence provided by
an online multiple-choice test
of reading and listening, taken
by a random group of people
who self-select to do so really
doesn’t tell us that much – not
even how good the test takers
are at actually speaking English,
because speaking isn’t tested.
Year on year very little
changes: the Dutch come in at
number one, followed by almost
all the other Germanic-speaking
countries plus Singapore and
South Africa. The Slavs beat
the Latin speakers, with the
exception of the Portuguese and This year, though, EF found disadvantaged backgrounds could demographic most likely to speak
Romanians. The Philippines one stunning change. For read in English better than in English well – took the test.
and the Malays are up with the first time since its test Norwegian. Perhaps long hours of And how do we explain why
the Europeans, but most was launched in 2014, male practice playing games in English boys are still trailing girls in all
non-Europeans with non-Indo- candidates outscored their has given boys the edge on the the other exams, including IELTS
European languages struggle. female peers across the world. EF test. and TOEFL, which publish
Apart from the Francophone This phenomenon was noted in Or maybe they just watch their annual results by gender,
Lebanese, Arabs fare particularly Europe last year, but it has now more subtitled television in nationality and first language?
badly, which should be no spread globally, with Africa the English. Several studies have One factor in the design of the
surprise, as the CIA ranks Arabic only region where women were shown that children from EF test may skew the results in
as the hardest language for still in the lead. countries which subtitle English favour of males: it relies solely
English speakers to learn. Besides, As any linguistic researcher TV shows score better at on the results of multiple choice
the one language skill which the will tell you, girls routinely English than those that dub questions and MCQs, as they
Arabs are unusually strong in – outperform boys at language them, even when both countries are known, have been shown in
speaking – isn’t tested by EF. learning, not only in every speak the same language. This many studies to favour boys.
Countries go up a bit one national and international exam, may explain why the subtitling A recent study from Silvia
year and down a bit the next, but in almost every piece of Austrians came second on this Griselda, at Melbourne
depending on the language language learning research year’s EF global ranking, with University, examined the results
level of the people from that ever published. Males beating the dubbing Germans coming in of 500,000 of the OECD’s PISA
country who took the test that females on a language test 11th place and why Portugal, in tests in maths and found that the
year. Sample size is also key. If a is like England winning the at number 7, beat Brazil, which higher percentage of MCQs in
relatively small number of people World Cup at football – it almost ranks at 60. the test, the lower the scores of
from one country take the test, never happens. However, not dubbing films girls compared to boys.
results can go up and down like However, a few recent studies and TV cannot explain how So, are boys really beating girls
a yo-yo. have also noticed the boys- Portugal, the highest riser this at English? We won’t know until
Additionally, if there’s a do-best phenomenon. The year, has improved its score by 2026, when the results of the
sudden jump in the sample size studies were all from northern 116 points since last year. first PISA language test comes
it may lead to a drop, as less- Europe and involved boys Since countries cannot out. The international exam
educated people go online and who enjoyed computer games. significantly improve the average run by the OECD will test the
take the test. One from Finland noted that English language level of their English skills of listening, reading
Language distance remains the boys who are computer gamers entire population in 12 months, and speaking in a representative
biggest predictor for how well were beginning to outperform it probably just shows that a sample of 600,000 15-year-olds
someone from a particular country girls, while a Norwegian paper higher proportion of wealthy, in 79 countries. Until then we’re
does on any language test. found that boy gamers from well-educated Portuguese – the really just guessing.
editorial@elgazette.com 7