Abstract:
In the last decades, several investigations have been carried out with relation to the way
gender differences may impact the learning process. The present study seeks to clarify, not only
such effect, but also what intervention tools and strategies teachers apply to handle gender diversity
in the EFL classroom. With this purpose, the researcher worked with six specific groups of
students, whose ages ranged between six and eleven years old, and their respective Language
teachers together with the English Coordinator, the School Psychologist and the Discipline
Inspector at an Ecuadorian bilingual school in the city of Guayaquil. Data was collected by means
of a classroom observation instrument, students´ and teachers´ questionnaires, interviews and the
analysis of school documents. Findings rendered and confirmed valuable information with relation
to gender differences between boys and girls in aspects such as: attention span, class participation,
need for supervision, students´ perceptions of their Language teacher, types of activities male and
female pupils like or dislike, interaction with the opposite gender and teacher, to name a few.
Likewise, this research has evinced the urgent need to provide special training to EFL educators
with relation to the topic in question since the participating schoolteachers manifested not having
been capacitated in this area.
