Influence of Gender and Age on Second Language English Learners in Korea - Research Paper Example

It is so important that some companies and industries like healthcare include English proficiency among their requirements (Lorenzo, 2007). Moreover, many families travel abroad for several reasons, and this may require that they speak the language of the country they are in other than their native language (Gordon, 2000). Like learning a native language, secondary language acquisition is influenced by a variety of factors and outcomes may vary depending on the learning style of the student, age, gender, and even culture.

Similar to second language acquisition, learning style is influenced by age and gender. Learning style is defined as a person's personal choice of the way or method on how he can best gather data, process it, and put it to later use in terms of concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. It was suggested by Kolb (1976) that an individual learner has particular strengths related to his particular learning style. Moreover, the term refers to the individual differences in approaches to learning based on preferences.

It pertains to the ways in which an individual characteristically acquires, retains, and retrieves information (Felder and Henriques, 1995). A study conducted by Ramayah, Sivanandan, Nasrijal, Letchumanan, and Leong (2009) explored the relationship between learning style and gender among business students. The study used a questionnaire to collect and gather data and classified the participants using VARK (Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic) by Fleming. A convenience sampling method was used to ensure that an adequate number of samples are able to participate.

The results indicate that there is a significant difference between their learning styles in terms of gender, with female participants highly preferring a visual or auditory learning style than male participants. 

Similarly, Giordano and Rochford (2005) carried out a study among business major students enrolled in an urban community college and the results of the study suggest a significant relationship between age and learning style preferences.