The Relationship between Gender, methodology and Iranian EFL learners’ Performance on Summative Achievement Tests Saeed Rahimipoor Abstract All methods of cooperative learning utilize the basic elements of positive interdependence , individual accountability, collaborative/ social skills, and group processing. The teacher’s role changes from being in front of the learners doing most of the talking to becoming a facilitator who guides learners learning both academic and social realm (Jones, et. al. 994). Such new views of learning have no room in teaching EFL in our classroom especially in Kuwait Schools. Iranian students ‘s poor command of the English language in Kuwait from both career viewpoint and that of academic is a matter of concern in and around education system. For this reason, the researcher has done an experimental research to show the impact of interactive methodology of EFL with regard to Gender on on Iranian guidance students’ performance on summative achievement tests.
To achieve this goal, a pre-test based on English book three was administered to 250 students at Esteghlal and Meraj schools in Kuwait. Out of them 120 students who performed +/- 1 standard deviation above and below the mean were divided into four experimental groups. During the treatment, the first boy and the first girl classes were taught using interactive methods and techniques. The second boy and the second girl classes were handled with traditional language teaching methodology.
At the end of the treatment, the four groups received a summative achievement test based on the guidance school book three. The data were analyzed using independent sample t-test, paired sample t-test, two-way ANOVA and Sheffe Test. Among the five null hypotheses which determined the effect of the two major variables and the interaction between them, null hypotheses N0. one, three and four were rejected at . 05 significant level. All this indicated that interactive EFL method dominated the traditional one employed in the classes.
With regard to the other variable, gender, the girls in interactive classes performed fairly better than the boys but it was too small to reject the null hypotheses, and in the non-interactive classes they roughly performed alike. It would be suggested that EFL teachers employ interactive method and interactive techniques in teaching languages. And, if sufficiently motivated, the boys and the girls would perform well in interactive classes. This would enable the students utilize the English language for both their future career and academic purposes. This would also enable the teachers meet the educational objectives of the textbooks. s
