Gender Differences in the Outcomes of Computer-Assisted Language Instructional Strategies in Essay Writing: Case of Senior Secondary Classes in Ilorin City, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine what contribution gender couldmake to Nigerian students ' disposition to and performance in essay writingwhen exposed to computer-assisted language instructional strategies. Threesenior secondary classes were selected in Ilorin, Kwara State. The pretestposttestcontrol group quasi-experimental design was employed. Eachclass was assigned to an instructional strategy (collaborative computerassistedlanguage instruction, autonomous computer-assisted languageinstruction, and conventional instruction respectively). The treatmentto the groups lasted eight weeks. Computations of means and standarddeviation as well as analysis of covariance were used in analyzing the dataobtained. The findings showed that gender had significant effect on thestudents ' disposition to and significant effect on the students ' achievementin computer-assisted essay writing.Keywords: gender, gender achievement, language instruction strategies