Order for this Paper or similar Assignment Help Service

Fill the order form in 3 easy steps - Less than 5 mins.

Posted: November 16th, 2022

The Use of Spanish Gendered Language among 7th and 8th Graders

The Use of Spanish Gendered Language among 7th and 8th Graders
Only the Spanish language should be include when describing and comparing masculine and feminine words, NO FRENCH words should use, just Spanish, or both languages English and Spanish

Abstract
People often face challenges of varying intensities while learning second languages. This research tested the knowledge of Spanish gendered words among 24, 12 males and 12 females, 7th and 8th grader. The students attended individual sessions of face-to-face were interviewed to get in-depth information regarding their unknowing use of Spanish gendered words. Most students stated that it was challenging to learn the gendered words in Spanish than in English. The Most special words proved difficult for both graders. Both graders ought to be introduced to Spanish language lessons to help them improve their knowledge of Spanish language.
Introduction
I chose this topic to sensitize everyone involved in educational policy making the dire need for the continued provision of opportunity to every student to become fluent in second languages. Not only does the studying of non-native language help students in appreciating the culture of other people but also in understanding the working of languages that helps students gain a keen knowledge about their language; using their first language with precision and purpose. Knowledge of Spanish gendered words will help students interact well in the interconnected world where job opportunities can take one to places where the Spanish language is the official language. The knowledge and careful use of gendered words will promote gender equity as a culture of people who are highly fit to serve various countries in the Spanish world. This research argues that there is a relatively poor knowledge of Spanish gendered words among the 7th and 8th graders, an indication the students require to be taught, Spanish.

Methodology
The subjects of this research were seventh and eighth-grade students of Spanish. The total number students in my class were 24, the number evenly distributed among boys and girls. I engaged the students in a face-to-face interview, preferably because I was much interested in getting in-depth information regarding the use of Spanish gendered words unknowingly. The interview made use open-ended questions to give the students an opportunity to freely express their attitudes toward learning gendered aspects of Spanish alongside giving a detailed explanation on their experience learning Spanish. The students would then state whether learning the gendered aspect of language is more challenging in Spanish than in English.
No recordings were carried out in the classroom as I figured it could intimidate the children and the resultant fear would prevent them from talking freely. As a consequence, special attention was paid to the use of non-verbal cues to extract as much information as possible. The interview was carried out in the classroom because students felt more sufficiently comfortable to talk. Observation is another method that accompanies any other in research in this research; I extensively used it alongside a writing exercise to take note of the non-verbal cues. A lesson activity on the differences between masculine and feminine Spanish words was conducted and used to analyze the data.
The effectiveness of the lesson was determined by comparing a student’s work before and after the lesson. Interviews were additionally used to establish the prior knowledge of the gendered language in Spanish among the students. All the students were interviewed in the day one after the other for five days.

Findings
The following table shows the number of students who were able to correctly provide the equivalent feminine spanish word for the ten words given in the figure below. There was generally a poor performance in words that have special feminine counterparts, for example hombre public.
Serial
Number Masculine word Equivalent feminine word Number of students who got the word right
1. Medico Médica 24
2. Cirujano Cirujana 24
3. jefe Jefa 24
4. la cliente la clienta 17
5. el doctor la doctora 21
6. el chico La chica 6
7. Presidento Presidenta (female president) or primeradama(first lady) 24
8. El policía la mujerpolicía 0
9. Juez lajuez orjueza. 24
10. hombre public Mujerpública 0

Ease of learning gendered words in Spanish Yes No
Do you find it hard to grasp gendered concepts in Spanish than in English? 24 0
Discussion
As noted by Valenzuela et al. (2012), feminine nouns are easily distinguishable from masculine onesbecause they end in –a while the latter end in –o. Nounssuch as ‘el carro’, and ‘el cuchillo’ are masculine whereas ‘la mesa’ and ‘la casa’ are feminine. However, a few problems remained common among all the 24 students as they could not correctly manipulate some exceptional words which have also proven to be problematic for learners in the “beginners” category. For example, the word, Presidenta, initially meant president’s wife but is predominately interpreted a female presidents as there have been many female presidents in Latin America. In the literature review, this also proved to be a challenge but some people have suggested that presedente can be used invariably while other are still reluctantand continue to use the feminine form (Alarcon, 2009). While El policía means a policeman, la policía means the police force and thus the feminine form becomes la mujer policía which none of the students was able to get correctly .Juez generally means a judge but because majority of judges in Spain are female, some people call them la juez while others jueza. Most nouns ending with –z are generally feminine (Duff, P. & Hornberger, 2008). The quite offensive example the students had to wrestle with is hombre public meaning politician and mujer pública meaning a prostitute. All the learners have believed that it is quite tasking to learn the gendered words in Spanish than in English. This clearly shows that the 7th and 8th graders have a difficulty learning a second language after having been used with English.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there is a relatively poor knowledge of Spanish gendered words among the 7th and 8th graders, an indication the students require to be taught Spanish. This research used 24 7th and 8th grade students of Spanish in face-to-face interview and found out that there a great number of Spanish words are uncommon among the students. Additionally, most students find learning gendered words in Spanish harder compared to learning them in English.
Recommendations
Because studying of nonnative language helps students to be in appreciative of the culture of other people and in understanding the working of languages, both national and federal government should not adopt the abolition of funding for institutional language courses. The results of this research on the knowledge of Spanish gendered words among the 7th and 8th graders may not accurately apply on a larger scale as it is for my class.

References
Alarcon, I. (2009). The Processing of Gender Agreement in L1 and L2 Spanish: Evidence from
Reaction Time Data.Hispania, 92(4), 814-828. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/20063613
Duff, P. &Hornberger, N. (2008).Language socialization. New York: Springer.
Montrul, S. &Ionin, T. (2012). Dominant Language Transfer in Spanish Heritage Speakers and
Second Language Learners in the Interpretation of Definite Articles.The Modern Language Journal, 96(1), 70-94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2012.01278.x
Valenzuela, E., Faure, A., Ramírez-Trujillo, A. P., Barski, E., Pangtay, Y., &Diez, A. (2012). Gender and Heritage Spanish Bilingual Grammars: A Study of Code-mixed Determiner Phrases and Copula Constructions. Bilingualism, 95(3), 481-494. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23266150
Wardhaugh, R. & Fuller, J. (2015).An introduction to sociolinguistics.Wiley-Blackwell.

Order | Check Discount

Tags: The Use of Spanish Gendered Language among 7th and 8th Graders

Assignment Help For You!

Special Offer! Get 20-30% Off on Every Order!

Why Seek Our Custom Writing Services

Every Student Wants Quality and That’s What We Deliver

Graduate Essay Writers

Only the finest writers are selected to be a part of our team, with each possessing specialized knowledge in specific subjects and a background in academic writing..

Affordable Prices

We balance affordability with exceptional writing standards by offering student-friendly prices that are competitive and reasonable compared to other writing services.

100% Plagiarism-Free

We write all our papers from scratch thus 0% similarity index. We scan every final draft before submitting it to a customer.

How it works

When you opt to place an order with Nursing StudyBay, here is what happens:

Fill the Order Form

You will complete our order form, filling in all of the fields and giving us as much instructions detail as possible.

Assignment of Writer

We assess your order and pair it with a custom writer who possesses the specific qualifications for that subject. They then start the research/write from scratch.

Order in Progress and Delivery

You and the assigned writer have direct communication throughout the process. Upon receiving the final draft, you can either approve it or request revisions.

Giving us Feedback (and other options)

We seek to understand your experience. You can also peruse testimonials from other clients. From several options, you can select your preferred writer.

Expert paper writers are just a few clicks away

Place an order in 3 easy steps. Takes less than 5 mins.

Calculate the price of your order

You will get a personal manager and a discount.
We'll send you the first draft for approval by at
Total price:
$0.00