Abstract:
The number of female students is rapidly increasing than male students in universities in Sri
Lanka showing the contribution of women in future workforce. Entering to new life of
university, equally both male and female students face many difficulties due to the adoption
of English Language as the medium of subjects they are studying in their faculties.
Nevertheless, analyzing their academic performances, it is significant the fact that the female
students demonstrate better academic performances than male students. Being aware of the
fact, hypnotising their gender has an impact learning the English Language, a survey was
done taking 104 students (52 females and 52 males) from the faculty of management at the
University of Ruhuna. In order to accumulate the necessary data both quantitative and
qualititative methods were used. A test paper was given to the students and the test paper
included vocabulary, grammar, sentence structures and reading comprehension. To ensure the
effectiveness of the test, the paper was checked by several experienced English Instructors.
Several students were randomly selected and interviewed to check their speaking abilities. As
far as speaking skill is concerned, both female and male students seemed to be excited and
they were ensured to have a casual chat about their everyday life by the interviewer (the
researcher). Marking the papers gave the evidence that the girls achieved significantly better
than boys, supporting the fact that the girls are more open to new forms of a new language.
When speaking as well the girls showed better fluency than boys. Gathering more
information on the subject, some other articles, journals and research papers which had been
done on the same topic were read. More importantly, it is found that there is not a direct
connection between gender and learning English language but it depends on the motivation,
commitment, enthusiasm and social background they are living in which is different from the
hypothesis. Moreover it is noticed that the girls‘ interaction is higher than boys in the class
and in the society. Thus the reason behind why girls are more motivated than boys is that the
girls‘ attitudes learning English, is very positive. Nevertheless, the previous researchers
present that the results of doing such investigations are still controversial and what makes
better learners is not the gender but the effective education. Therefore, the study concludes
outlining some implications for the educational policy makers.
