2004/06/01 by Beatrice Davies, Béatrice Davies
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning #Gender Studies in Language #Second Language Learning and Teaching
paper · doi:10.1080/09571730485200111
openalex publication_date 2004/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
This paper addresses the issue of boys' well-documented underperformance and disaffection in MFL at KS4 by comparing the attitude and attainment of boys and girls in two year groups — Year 7 and Year 10. It presents the findings of a quantitative study conducted in a comprehensive school, which explores and compares the perceptions and attitudes of these two distinct cohorts, and compares their attainment in French. The objective is to gain an understanding of when marked differences between boys and girls emerge, and how these evolve according to their age and their experience of language learning. The data suggest that boys' underachievement and disaffection in MFL are not located, as might have been thought, exclusively in KS4, but start for many as early as their first term of French in Year 7 and tend to grow with age. The findings are discussed in the context of the recent Green Paper proposals to make MFL optional at KS4 (2002).