Sex and vocabulary: Relationship between elementary students in Havana

Abstract

It is common to hear, even from experienced language teachers and professor, that girls have a larger vocabulary than boys. However, most of these claims are not supported by scientific research results, but by the exercise of daily teaching practice. This work aims to verify the truthfulness of the criteria about vocabulary higher rates in girls than in boys, from the application of lexical richness tests and statistical analysis of the significance of the results (parametric difference statistical of proportions tests and Student's T tests). In order to achieve this, following a descriptive – quantitative, own lexical studies – statistical, and specifically for studies of lexical richness, we worked with two samples of written texts by primary school children from six schools in Havana, collected at two different times. The study presented corresponds to university research project entitled under Project teaching vocabulary, developed by the School of Spanish for Spanish speakers, of the University of Havana, directed by the author of the current article. The results allow valid conclusions for the sample.

Keywords

• discriminación de género
• español como lengua extranjera
• La Habana
• vocabulario