Benedicta Adokarley Lomotey

2 Publications in AERD

Author Publications

The gender enrolment gap in foreign language education revisited: Contemporary issues in a Ghanaian higher education institution

By Benedicta Adokarley Lomotey

This paper investigates the intersection between gender and foreign language education with specific reference to subject choice, motivation, and achievement. The study was carried out at a Ghanaian public university, amongst students of the following Bachelor of Arts foreign language programmes: Arabic, Chinese, French, Kiswahili, Russian and Spanish. Through a thematic analysis of transcribed focus group discussions and desk-research of relevant administrative documents, the authors inquire why a gender enrolment gap exists in the foreign language programmes and if indeed, certain languages are perceived as more masculine than others. The findings of the study confirm the existence of a gender gap in foreign language education. Participants also considered some languages such as Spanish and French as more feminine. Regarding their motivation, participants noted both integrative and instrumental factors that motivated them to study the foreign language. Additionally, the study found no statistical significance between the performance of females and males. However, males performed slightly better than females in Arabic, French, Kiswahili and Russian whereas females performed better in Spanish and Chinese. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

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Exploring the Adoption of Gender-Fair Spanish Alternatives in School Domains: An African University in Focus

By Benedicta Adokarley Lomotey

This paper sets out to investigate the extent of acceptance of gender-fair language proposals within the field of education; that is, the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language. The study was carried out at a Ghanaian public university amongst teachers and students of Spanish as a foreign language. Through a corpus and discourse analysis of audio recorded classroom lessons, examination papers, WhatsApp chats and electronic messages, the author examines the usage of gender-fair language among the members of the academic community. The author inquires if inclusive language is used by the participants, which types are used, why they are used and the patterns of usage. Additionally, a survey is conducted to compare native and non-native participants’ sensibilities to the use of the masculine generic. The author found that despite the resistance of the Spanish Royal Academy and other parties, gender-fair language proposals appear to have infiltrated some academic domains to some extent. Finally, the author recommends some strategies through which Spanish language teachers can avoid gender inequity in language education without departing from the norm. © 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

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