The Effect of Gender in Providing Details in The Writings of Advanced Foreign Learners of Persian Language Based on Functional Grammar

Abstract

This research has been done to investigate the impact of gender on different circumstantial adjuncts usage in the writings of foreign learners of Persian language based on Halliday's systemic functional grammar approach. The method of this research is descriptive-analytic method. The sample and the corpus of this research was the writing of 248 advanced female and male foreign learners of Persian language of the center for teaching Persian language in Ferdowsi university of Mashhad. Sampling method has been done in this order: first, the writing of 248 advanced female and male foreign learners of Persian language was separated based on gender (124 men and 124 women); Then, the circumstantial adjuncts in the texts was determined based on the segmentation of Halliday; after that, the distribution of all circumstantial adjuncts, was determined and shown by charts and compared. The chi - square statistical test was used to study the significance of differences between men and women. The results indicate that the women have used circumstantial adjuncts in their writing more than the men. Only, the men have used circumstantial adjuncts of cause more than the women. Advanced foreign learners of Persian language have used locational circumstantial adjuncts more than the other circumstantial adjuncts.

Keywords

• written varieties
• advanced foreign learners of persian language
• gender and language
• halliday's systemic functional grammar
• circumstantial adjuncts