Sex and language acquisition - Is there any influence?

Abstract

In this article, the author examines the empirical evidence in support of the widely acknowledged stereotype that women and girls speak better than men and boys, restricting her analysis to its developmental psycholinguistic aspect. Having reported on current empirical findings on sex differences in the phonological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic dimensions of language acquisition, the methodological status of current empirical analyses is discussed (which, on the whole, did not find any sex differences except within the domain of semantic and pragmatic language learning). The topic of sex differences in language acquisition is then treated under the question of whether and where sex differences are theoretically to be epxected. In this context, the theoretical contributions of biology, of Plagetian cognitive psychology, and of socialization theory are examined. The evaluation of empirical research and hypotheses about the influence of sex on language acquisition, derived from these theories, then leads to the following hypotheses about language learning in girls and boys: (1) There is a sex difference in language learning; however, sex differences are not to be expected in all areas of language acquisition, but most likely only in the semantic-pragmatic domain. (2) The influence of sex on language acquisition has to be seen as causing differences and not deficits. (3) This crucial distinction between differences and deficits in language learning has not been made in previous empirical research, which is one explanation of their not being too successful. (4) Conceiving of sex and language acquisition in terms of difference rather than of deficit should be a productive guideline for further empirical research in a branch of psycholinguistics that is in dire need of being developed.