Although the status of Putonghua is perceived to be on the rise progressively in post-colonial Hong Kong, the tremendous social prestige enjoyed by English language is still dominating this city, which resulted in educationalists’ attention on students’ achievements in English language, especially after female students were found to out-compete their male counterparts in English studies for years. In order to yield more reference for educationalists concerning this phenomenon, a newly developed approach, namely the Motivational Self System Model (Dörnyei, 2009), was adopted to investigate the gender differences regarding secondary school students’ motivation and their English achievements in Hong Kong. 30 male and 30 female freshmen studying in various departments in the University of Hong Kong participated in this study. Their level of motivation in English learning was measured through a questionnaire consisted of 30 questions scored on a 7-point Likert scale. Interviews were conducted afterwards to generate qualitative data so as to assist quantitative analysis. By using independent sample t-test, Pearson correlation test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), it was found that female respondents showed higher levels of language learning experience than male respondents, but learners’ English achievements were only positively correlated to their levels of ideal self. The relationship of gender, motivation and English achievement was therefore re-examined. It was discovered that Arts students tended to out-perform their Science peers in English studies. Meanwhile, male and female learners were found to dominate Science stream and Arts stream respectively owing to the social facet of their ideal selves. As a result, the gender differences regarding secondary school students’ English achievements were highly likely to be originated from males’ domination in Science stream and that of females in Arts stream. This brought about pedagogical implications for educators, in that more resources should be reallocated for Science students regarding English learning. / published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

M.A. (Afrikaans) / The women's liberation movement, which had its origins in the seventies, produced a number of intellectuals who have been actively campaigning for the eradication of sexism in especially the American society ever since. In terms of this movement, language is deemed to provide the very paradigm within which gender inequality is set to flourish unchecked. One of the principal aims of the movement is, therefore, to eliminate all grammatical forms in terms of which women, trapped in a traditionally male-dominated world, are being ignored, slighted, degraded and stereotyped. Soon, several publishers started introducing and organising women's study series and workshops on sexism at conferences on language and sociology. In the wake of that, a great number of publications, in which language inequalities are scientifically described, have appeared already. In addition, many articles and books were published in which guide-lines were laid down for the avoidance of sexist lexical items in the English language, which has since gained the unfortunate distinction of being labelled the most sexist language. The emphasis in the present study will, however, not fall on the ideology underlying the women's liberation movement, but on the many publications on language sexisms that had been prompted by it. Language planning and change naturally play a crucial part in all publicatlons on language sexisms. The general sociolinguistic supposition about language change is that it is prompted by change in the social structure of a society. The advocates of the development of a non-sexist language, however, appeal to the Whorf hypothesis, in terms of which the language structure of a society is deemed to reflect and facilitate its world view. According to the champions of the said hypothesis, however, the reverse of this argument should also hold good, namely that a change in the language structure of a society should bring about an inevitable change in its world view. On the strength of the latter hypothesis, alternatives are suggested for all sexist lexical items, so that v the new-found non-sexist language could help society to create a non-sexist social structure. A definition of the term language sexism has been formulated in the present study, based on the conclusions reached in research articles. The conclusion drawn is that the term sexism could only be applied in respect of language usage relating to women. Although feminists have even coined such phrases as male chauvinist pig, the literature that was taken into study (with the possible exception of that generated by Hauptfleisch, 1989), made no mention whatsoever of the possibility that male terms' could also be considered sexist. Current research projects and existing publications on language sexisms are mainly in English. With the exception of Liebenberg (1976), the few existing research studies in Afrikaans deal with specific topics, such as sexisms in translation practice or teaching material. In the present study, however, the researcher has endeavoured to describe the specific nature of those sexisms found in the Afrikaans lexicon.

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published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts

In Hebrew, as in English, the masculine form takes precedence over the feminine, and consequently many masculine terms can serve both generic and sex-specific functions. Almost all biblical laws, whether formulated in the imperative or in the third person, appear in singular or plural masculine form, and therefore present a major difficulty in terms of gender interpretation. The position of women in the legal covenant is thus rendered highly ambiguous. / The tannaitic sages, Jewish biblical exegetes of the first post-Christian centuries, were acutely aware of the problem and wrote numerous midrashim which interpreted ambiguous terms of gender in the biblical legal corpus. They determined the extent to which the various gender references referred to women. / These interpretations have been almost totally neglected in modern biblical and rabbinic scholarship, and are here collated and carefully analyzed for the first time. It is shown that though the sages operated within an ideological framework, their exegetical procedures played a major role in their legislation.

Lui, Wai Shan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 150-155). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Title --- p.i / Abstract --- p.iii / 論文摘要 --- p.iii / Acknowledgments --- p.iv / Table of Contents --- p.v / Chapter Section One: --- "The Research Question, theoretical context and methodological considerations" / Chapter Chapter One --- The ´بLanguage Education' Question --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction: The Gendered Achievement Gap in English --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- The Research roblematic --- p.6 / Chapter 1.3 --- Form One Students in a Band One EMI Working Class School in Hong Kong --- p.8 / Chapter Chapter Two --- Gender and English as a Second/Foreign Language Education Studies in Contexts / Chapter 2.1 --- Theoretical Contexts: From Male Dominated Subjects to Female Dominated Subjects --- p.16 / Chapter 2.2 --- Borrowing Frameworks from Gender and Mathematics and Science Education Studies --- p.26 / Chapter 2.3 --- Research Questions --- p.33 / Chapter 2.4 --- Structure of this Report --- p.37 / Chapter Chapter Three --- Making the Familiar Strange --- p.40 / Chapter 3.1 --- Ethnography at Home: Tension and Inspiration with Personal Experience --- p.40 / Chapter 3.2 --- Multiple Identities and Old and New ower Relations --- p.53 / Chapter 3.3 --- Qualitative Analysis and Writing --- p.61 / Chapter Section Two: --- Findings and Analysis / Chapter Chapter Four --- Students´ة Perception of English: An “Inferior´ح and “Feminine´ح Subject --- p.66 / Chapter 4.1 --- The Funny but Boring English Lessons (and the Boring but Interesting Mathematics Lessons) --- p.66 / Chapter 4.2 --- Hierarchy of Academic Subjects --- p.86 / Chapter 4.3 --- "Authority and Masculinity of ""Objective"" Knowledge" --- p.90 / Chapter 4.4 --- The Making (or the Unsuccessful Making) of Objective Academic Subjects --- p.95 / Chapter 4.5 --- Conclusion: The Valuable but Inferior Subject --- p.103 / Chapter Chapter Five --- Learning as Identity Construction: The Case of English --- p.105 / Chapter 5.1 --- "Achiever by Instrumental Rationality: Jackson, the ""Career Plan´ح Boy" --- p.105 / Chapter 5.2 --- "Achiever by Feminine ersona Over-acted: Ricky, the ""Maria"" boy" --- p.109 / Chapter 5.3 --- A Communal Activity: Girls as a Group --- p.117 / Chapter 5.4 --- Conclusion: Interplay between Gender Identity and Learner Identity --- p.119 / Chapter Chapter Six --- Being in a Colonized World: Students´ة Social Struggles over English Learning --- p.121 / Chapter 6.1 --- Middle Class Normative Ideal and Working Class Struggle --- p.121 / Chapter 6.2 --- Anxiety over EMI Identity --- p.126 / Chapter 6.3 --- L2 Learners´ة Sense of Ownership --- p.129 / Chapter 6.4 --- Value of L1 Resource --- p.133 / Chapter 6.5 --- Overpowering Colonialism through the Power of Masculinity --- p.135 / Chapter 6.6 --- Conclusion: Deficiency Model of the Colonized --- p.139 / Chapter Section Three: --- Conclusion / Chapter Chapter Seven --- The Complexity of the ´بLanguage Education，Question in Feminism --- p.141 / Appendix: Interview and Observation Guide --- p.148 / References --- p.150

A randomly-selected sample of 31,115 words taken from the eight original plays of Lillian Hellman was analyzed on the basis of female and male dialogue. Lexical classes--verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns--were examined by studying terms described by other researchers, especially Mary P. Hiatt, as belonging to generally "feminine" or "masculine" categories. In these classes, differences were statistically significant based on gender in two areas.Adjective figures that took into account type 1) of adjective, 2) of referent, and 3) of speaker showed statistical significance. This was true only for the "feminine" adjectives, especially as used by female speakers for female referents. Pronouns were distributed through the plays and used by the genders of speakers at significant levels of difference. A connection was evidenced between each gender of speaker and the gender of pronouns used, a strong relationship that also showed significance by play.Areas of syntax studied were emphasis, communication unit length, and clause structure. Markings of emphasis were significant by gender, female characters having both more instances and more marked words. Length evidenced no difference, likely because of requirements of the dramatic setting. The study of clause structure showed that female characters were given more whole sentences and more coordination at significant levels.Each area studied was analyzed for statistical significance. Hiatt's results were also statisticaly calculated and reported. Significance was based on chi-square calculations, at a level of p < .05 for rejecting null hypotheses. In addition to an axis based on gender, figures were also computed for specific plays.Applying the categories to individual plays and characters showed Hellman"s use of these strategies to define personality. For instance, with adjectives and emphasis, types more often given to female characters were also given in comparatively large number to themen in the Hubbard plays (The Little Foxes, and Another Part of the Forest), thereby marking them as unusual and adding to their characterization. / Department of English

Educational equality -- Composition studies -- Lack of feminist articles in professional journals of composition/writing.