AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF GENDER AND STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN FRENCH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN NIGERIAN INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING

Ajani Akinwumi Lateef (Ph.D)

Abstract

Considering the importance attached to the development of French language in Nigeria, it is important to take a look into the effect of a gender in the mastery of French language among learners of the language in Nigeria schools. Thus, the present paper reports the empirical study carried out to determine the effect of a gender in the mastery of French language. The sample consisted of one hundred and seventy-two male and female undergraduate students from eight Nigerian universities who were in the Nigerian French village, Ajara, Badagry for their French immersion programme. Stratified Random Sampling was used as population for the study. The instrument used was a 50 items multiple choice achievement test constructed by the researcher. The research questions were raised and attempt was made on the part of students to answer them. Also, formulated were two null hypotheses. However, from the analysis of result, there is clear evidence that, there is a significant difference between the performance of male and female students. Female students performed significantly better than the male students. Study concludes with some pertinent recommendations that could make French language attractive to male future learners of French and make them perform better in subsequent future examinations.