Saturday 9:00 - 10:20 AM
Cosmos A, Olympic ParkTel
Gender in the Asian EFL Classroom
Sheelagh Conway
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Korea
In the discourse on English as a Foreign Language a glaring lacuna exists
when it comes to the critical issue of gender in the Asian classroom. Gender
is a socially-organized construct, the outcome of patriarchal power discourses
such as Confucianism and Christianity, the messages of which render Asian
women second-class and deficient. Such discourses play an integral role
in classroom dynamics where female students often speak less, defer to
male students, and are accorded less authority compared to males. This
presentation will examine the socio-historical implications of gender in
the EFL classroom along with current social power arrangements such as
son-preference attitudes which mitigate against Asian women's equality.
Ways to create a more equal classroom climate will also be explored.
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