The Impact of Iranian EFL learners’ Gender on their Vocabulary Retention

Abstract

The concept of gender, as we now use it came into common parlance during the early 1970s. It was used as an analytical category to draw a line of demarcation between biological sex differences and the way these are used to inform behaviours, which are then assigned as either masculine or feminine (Holmes and Meyerhoff 2003). The main concern of the present study was to probe the probable differences between Iranian male/female learners of English vocabulary their retention. The subjects of this research included 253 Iranian female and male learners at five high school centres in Arak. At first a general English proficiency test were administered in order to homogenizing them and after that a background questionnaire, and a vocabulary test were administered to both groups. ANOVA was used for analysis the data and finally the results of this study indicated that Iranian EFL male learners surpassed their female peers in English vocabulary retention.