Gender differences in vocabulary processing in the EFL tertiary context: speed of recall and meaning accuracy

Abstract

Abstract: This study aims at investigating gender differences in processing vocabulary (recall speed and the accuracy of meaning recall) among EFL students. The study sample consisted of 35 EFL students (21 females and 14 males) out of a population of 120 EFL students from the English Department at Abbes Laghrour University of Khenchela, Algeria. The experiment's results were analyzed based on inferential statistics using a t-test. Results have shown that there is a significant difference between the memorization performance of males and females in terms of the two recalls. The results also revealed that females outperformed males in the two aspects under study: recall speed and meaning accuracy. Keywords: EFL; Gender; Memorization; Recall; Vocabulary