“The Role of Gender in Affective Education in the Foreign Language Classroom.” Efrosini I. Kritikos Harvard University, ALM May 1 st , 2001
“The Role of Gender in Affective Education in the Foreign Language Classroom.”
Efrosini I. Kritikos
Harvard University, ALM
May 1st, 2001
Abstract
According to a School and Staffing Survey (198788) by the National Center for Education Statistics of the US Department of Education, female foreign language teachers outnumber male foreign language teachers by eight to two. These statistics imply that females may have an advantage over males in this field. Based on research, it has been shown that females tend to be more sensitive, caring, empathetic and emotionally connected in their speech. These are essential ingredients in affective education which plays an important role in foreign language acquisition. It can be arguedthat to be a successful foreign language teacher one would need to carry these “female characteristics” which therefore would facilitate learning in this unique teacherlearner relationship. Research in regards to gender and language will be examined to determine whether these characteristics are inherent more in females than they are in males giving females a natural advantage in this field.
To test this hypothesis, the differences will be examined in feedback given to a foreign language learner’s written production by a nonexpert college educated population of males and females ages 2545 which will be gathered by classmembers. It is predicted that in general the feedback given by nonexpert females will bemore supportive than the feedback given by the nonexpert males.
I
Introduction
According to a School and Staffing Survey (198788) by the National Center for
Education Statistics of the U.S. Department of Education, female foreign language
teachers outnumber male foreign language teachers by eight to two.These statistics imply
that females may have an advantage over males in this field. Based on research, it has
been shown that females tend to be more sensitive, caring, empathetic and emotionally
connected in their speech than are males (Lakoff, 1975; Holmes, 1984). These are
essential ingredients in affective education which plays an important role in foreign
language acquisition (Begin, 1971; Disick and Barbanel,1974; Laine,1987; Littlewood,
1984). It can be argued that to be a successful foreign language teacher one would need
to possess these “female characteristics” which therefore would facilitate learning in this
unique teacherlearner relationship. Research in regards to gender and language will be
examined as a basis for this discussion (Boe, 1987; Cameron, 1992; Fishman, 1978;
Ochs, 1992).
II
Background
Learning a foreign language is different from learning other subjects such as
mathematics or history. Even though emotional factors play a major role in the learning
process no matter what is being learned (Begin, 1971), the foreign language learner is
3
more vulnerable because as Littlewood (1984) has pointed out “in the typical language
classroom, learners are often asked to perform in a state of ignorance and dependence
which may engender feelings of helplessness” (p. 58). He goes on to say that “the second
language environment may cause learners to feel anxious and constrained. With their
limited communicative competence, they may have difficulties in relating to others and
presenting their own selves adequately” (p. 59). This is why he believes that “a
sympathetic teacher and cooperative atmosphere” is needed to support the student in this
situation. Begin (1971) compares this special relationship between foreign
language learner and teacher to that between a mother and child. He says that “the
feeling of being wholly dominated by her made them experience complete helplessness,
as if they were speechless babies” (p. 24).
There has been a lot of research in second language acquisition which claims that
for second language learning to take place, learners must have a low “affective filter”
which Laine (1987) citing Dulay, Burt & Krashen (1982) explains is “that part of the
internal processing system that subconsciously screens incoming language” (p.3).
Attitudes towards the foreign language teacher have been suggested to be one of the most
important aspects of this “affective filter”. As Laine (1989) says “of all the factors
operative in the school FL learning situation, the FL teacher is the most fundamental” (p.
56). She sums up by saying “what seems to be expected of the FL teacher as one of the
very first things is encouragement in various forms, empathy, professional competence,
and an ability to create a safe and secure classroom atmosphere” (p. 57).
4
Disick and Barbanel (1974) agree with Laine that for “affective language
teaching” to take place, that is language teaching where the learners’ emotions are taken
into account, the teacher must understand “both the feelings that accompany the message
and its objective content” (p. 195) and that is why the foreign language teacher must
display “empathy” and “sensitivity” in order to establish a successful learning situation.
Therefore, because the teacher’s “influence as a ‘filteringraising agent’” is crucial to
learning then it can be argued that a teacher must possess the characteristics mentioned
above; for example, sensitivity, empathy, being accommodating, caring and emotionally
connected (Laine, 1987, p. 57). However, at this point we need to ask whether these
characteristics are found more in females than they are in males.
A lot of research has been done in relation to gender and language with some
conclusions made about gender differences in speech. In the past there have been two
main positions regarding what Lakoff (1975) has called “woman’s language”; that is the
“dominance position” and the “difference position” which will be explained below.
More recently linguists have been examining these gender differences in language by not
looking only at linguistic forms but also their functions. They have found that these
differences cannot be accounted for if the context in which language is used is also
examined. Boe (1987) supplies a comprehensive list of linguistic variations seen in
women’s speech along with the developing explanatory models according to the two
diverging approaches mentioned above (p.279).
Lakoff (1975) came up with distinct linguistic forms which she says characterize
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“women’s language”. This is a term she coined and which prompted many others since
then to write about gender language differences. Holmes (1995) explains by saying,
“Lakoff identifies a number of specific linguistic forms, crosscutting all linguistic levels
of analysis, which together, she claims, constitute a distinctive style of speaking” (p.
150). At the word level she includes “empty” adjectives such as “well”, “y’know” and
“kinda” as well as the use of euphemisms. At the syntactic level she refers to hyper
correct grammar and the use of interrogative forms such as tag questions. At the
phonological level she identifies more frequent use of ‘standard’ or ‘correct’
pronunciation, a wide range of intonation patterns, and greater use of interrogative
intonation and emphatic stress as characteristic of ‘women’s language’ (p.150). Holmes
explains that these forms have been called “hedges” “which is a lexical item used to
attenuate or hedge illocutionary force” (p. 151). She also says that “women use more
tags which can be categorized as primarily expressing solidarity or ‘positive politeness’
than any other meaning, and they use three times as many of these tags as men do” (p.
154). Therefore she concludes by saying:
This research shows that women tend to put considerably more effort than men into maintaining and facilitating conversation and discussion. Women provide support for others’ topics …, allow males in particular to dominate the available talking time without interruption…, and generally do the lion’s share of the conversational ‘work’ in femalemale interactions…. The women’s role is that of a supportive, facilitative listener in such interaction. (p. 155)
Cameron (1992) claims that the field of linguistic sex difference studies is divided
in trying to explain these phenomena. She summarizes by saying the “problem is
whether to interpret certain features empirically associated with the speech of women as
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primarily effects of power and subordination – the dominance position – or as primarily
effects of subcultural variation, analogous to the interethnic variation in discourse style
… the difference or subcultural position” (p. 14).
Cameron (1992) summarizes both positions really nicely. She says “the
dominance approach, popularized by Robin Lakoff’s Language and Woman’s Place
(1975) in the early 1970s, asserts that there is a characteristic register or ‘women’s
language’ consisting of certain linguistic features and connoting tentativeness, deference,
and lack of authority” (p. 15). She goes on to say that “women are socialized into using
this style of speech as part of their subordinate social position” (p. 15). Miller claims
women find themselves in positions of subordinance and as subordinates they are
expected to not only take care of their babies but everyone else too (Rohrbaugh, 1997).
This work is very often undervalued and women are made to feel powerless.
Rohrbaugh (1997) says this is because “a woman is actively encouraged to identify her
own needs with the needs of others” and this can have negative consequences as “the
woman loses her sense of selfworth and independent existence” (p. 14). Cameron
(1992) also claims that other researchers using this kind of approach have “put less
emphasis on socialization, preferring to stress the role of individual men in constraining
women’s linguistic behavior so that it expresses subordinate status” (p.15). Either way,
she concludes by saying that all the studies using this approach are “unified in
their emphasis on social status as the key factor in explaining genderlinked differences”
(p.15).
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Fishman (1978) studied malefemale hierarchy in everyday interaction by
taping the daily conversations between couples using this approach. She found that
women do more conversational work than men which is due to the “interactional
manifestation of power relations” (p. 397). She believes that there is a “division of labor
in conversation” in which “women are the ‘shitworkers’ of routine interaction” since
“sometimes they are required to sit and “be a good listener” because they are not
otherwise needed. At other times, women are required to fill silences and keep
conversation moving, to talk a lot. Sometimes they are expected to develop others’ topics
and at other times they are required to present and develop topics of their own” (p. 405).
She claims that gender identity is implicitly tied with all these rules of interaction and
women that do not conform, that is are not available or accommodating, are often called
“bitches”. She goes on to say:
The active maintenance of a female gender requires women to be available to do what needs to be done in interaction, to do the shitwork and not complain. Since interactional work is related to what constitutes being a woman, with what a woman is, the idea that is work is obscured. The work is not seen as what womendo, but as part of what they are. (p.405)
Cameron (1992) also summarizes the difference position. She says “this approach
views the behavior of women not as a mark of their subordinate status, but as a
manifestation of distinctive female subcultural norms and values” (p. 16). This approach
would interpret women’s speech behavior not as imposed ‘shitwork’ but as a normal
female pattern, which she says would be “problematic only insofar as men, who are
socialized in a different subculture, fail to understand it or respond in the same way” (p.
8
16). This approach therefore “replaces the idea of an inequitable arrangement with the
less pejorative idea of cultural variation” (p.16).
Boe (1987) refers to the work on women’s psychological development and
in particular to that of Carol Gilligan (1982) and the Stone Center for Developmental
Services (Jordan, 1977b). This work attempts to place women’s experience in a new
light which avoids using the male as the ‘norm’. Quoting Miller Boe says that “women’s
sense of self becomes very much organized around being able to make and then maintain
affiliation and relationships” (p. 272). In reference to Gilligan who calls this
connectedness to others,” Boe (1987) says that it “is thought to arise from the fact that
female children do not need to achieve separation from their mothers in order to establish
their gender identity while male children must individuate to achieve their gender
identity. Thus girls achieve femininity through attachment and differentiation, while boys
achieve masculinity through separation and individuation (Gilligan 1982:8)” (p. 272).
This idea can be seen in the work of Miller and the Stone Center where emphasis
is on the “motherdaughter relationship as prototype for all empathic relationships and
discusses the development and impact of such relationships in different areas of women’s
lives” (Rohrbaugh, 1997, p. 16). Miller, Jordan, Kaplan, Stiver and Surrey ( 1997) talk of
a “relational approach” to psychological development (p. 25) and point out that what
have been considered women’s weaknesses are in fact their strengths which are based on
relatedness. They explain that an “empathic approach” is not just being “a nice person”
but to be able to genuinely and sincerely face the hard facts of life. Jordan (1997a) adds
9
that “mutual empathic understanding is central” to a woman’s definition of self (p. 14
15). On the other hand, Jordan (1997b) pointed out that there must be a balance between
what she calls “the objectifying/power/control mode” and the “empathic/love mode”
which is characterized as the difference between “a sense of connection and relational
expansion rather than control, domination, or satisfaction of individual wants” (p. 55).
This must be attained through what Bergman and Surrey (1995) call “mutual
relationships” which they describe in reference to Miller and Surrey as “growthfostering
relationships characterized by mutual engagement, mutual empathy, and mutual
empowerment” (p. 260).
Chodorow (1974) also revises traditional psychoanalytic theory by explaining that
gender differences arise due to “a focus on the conscious and unconscious effects of early
involvement with a female for children of both sexes” of which the motherdaughter
relationship is “of central importance” for women (p. 45). Boe (1987) continues by
saying “it is theorized that out of the character of the motherdaughter relationship, the
female child feels emotionally connected, understood, and recognized. The child models
the behavior of the mother and her actions are reinforced. A mutual sharing process
evolves which strengthens the sense of connectedness by becoming highly responsive to
the feeling states of each other. A daughter not only learns how to relate from an “other”
orientation but finds that this empathic or caring response is rewarding as there is
mutuality in it, both mutual sharing and mutual empowerment (Surrey 1985: 37)” (p.
272). Rohrbaugh (1997) says that this produces the cycle of “reproduction of mothering”
10
where “female parenting creates sex differences in personality that lead women to seek
emotional intimacy in a type of mothering that, in turn, recreates these same sex
differences in that woman’s children” (p. 12).
Boe (1987) says that because mother is the primary caretaker she influences the
child’s first language acquisition which in turn affects gender socialization. She says
“learning sex role characteristics and acquiring a psychological set according to the
child’s gender must to a great degree be accomplished through language” (p. 274).
Therefore, we have a double effect on gender socialization, one through relationship and
the other through language both of which contribute to differences in language between
the sexes. However, Boe also recognizes that it is not so much gender but role that
influences language differences. She says “a comprehensive treatise on language
socialization by Schieffelin and Ochs (1986) speaks to the notion that there is both
socialization through the use of language and socialization to use language. Said in
another way, styles of communication seem directly linked to concepts of social identity
and social roles; and, furthermore, social interaction constructs the realities of social
roles” (p.275). This will be discussed in more detail below.
Ochs (1992) later went on to examine the role of mothers and other caretakers
with children in order to research the social and cultural construction of gender in society
through language. This she calls “language socialization” which includes both
socialization through language and socialization to use language (p.346). She says that
“although mothering is a universal kinship role of women and in this role women have
11
positions of control and power, their communicative styles as mothers vary considerably
across societies” (p. 346). She claims that American mothers are much more
“accommodating” to their children and that they “tend to socialize their children to ignore
or minimize the role of the mother” which is not the case for mothers in other societies
(p. 355). Therefore, their role as mothers in this cultural context contributes to their
choice linguistic forms in their verbal behavior which serve the function of a facilitator in
communication and not an equal participant. She claims that this in turn reflects upon the
American conception of the role of mothering which “is surprisingly underrated, even
ignored, in definitions of womanhood” (p. 355).
In reference to social learning theory Rohrbaugh (1997) advises that by looking at
the “interaction between individual experience and social context” we can begin to
understand the difference in “characteristics and statuses” of both genders (p.25).
Ochs supports this by saying “the relation of language to gender is constituted and
mediated by the relation of language to stances, social acts, social activities, and other
social constructs” and other “pragmatic functions of language” (p.337) and not
necessarily gender in itself. She goes on to say “one of the major advances in language
and gender research has been a move away from relating isolated linguistics forms to
gender differences and toward specifying clusters of linguistic features that distinguish
men’s and women’s speech in society” (p. 334). She warns that “studies that start out
by isolating particular linguistic forms associated with male or female speakers/
12
addressees/referents tend not to reach this kind of functional or strategybased account of
men’s and women’s speech” (p. 344). She claims that studies of this type “describe a
distributional pattern of linguistic forms across the two sexes” which when “isolated” are
explained out of context and therefore misrepresented.
Cameron makes a good point when she says “it seems to me that the concepts we
have been operating with – ‘women’s’ and ‘men’s’ language, ‘powerful’ and ‘powerless’
language – are too rigid to capture the subtle complexity of what is going on in talk.
Instead of searching for the linguistic correlates of these monoliths, then, we might
proceed by asking slightly different questions – questions about how language is being
used, by real people in real situations, to construct gender and gender relations” (p.24).
Holmes (1984) agrees with Cameron by saying that “negative views of women’s
language” is due to “negative stereotypes of women”. Many times interpretation of these
phenomena is laden with bias and we must be careful of overgeneralizations which
Holmes says “conforms to the valuesystem of the majority group [or in this case
dominant group] in the community” (p. 171). Freed and Greenwood are also in
accordance with this stand when they say after having studied speech in female and male
pairs that “the type of talk, not the sex or gender of the speaker, motivates and thus
explains the language forms that occur” and therefore conclude that “when considering
speaking styles (whether cooperative or powerless), we need to guard against
overgeneralization… it is wrong to characterize all women and no men as powerless or
insecure speakers, and that it is equally wrong to portray all women and no men as
13
engaging in cooperative talk” (p.21).
Holmes (1984) looks at these forms through a functional approach, that is, why a
speaker might choose these forms and what “communicative strategy” they may express
by taking into account not only gender but “power”, “role” and the “speaker’s aim”.
Therefore, she examines the context in which these forms are used and considers such
factors as : “medium or channel of communication, the role and status of the speaker in
relation to the addressee(s), the type of interaction and the degree of formality involved”
(p.162). She explains by saying:
The label ‘leadership role/facilitator’ refers to those responsible for ensuring that the conversation or discussion proceeds smoothly. Included in this category are teachers and child groupleaders inclassroom discussions, hosts (female and male) in informal conversations in their homes, and interviewers in radio and television interviews. The leader or facilitators clearly use more tags than their coparticipants. Moreover, although the data were balanced in terms of the number of females and males who could be described as leaders or facilitators on the basis of extralinguistic criteria, more women than men use tags as linguistic devices in performing this particular role. These data provide further evidence, then, that factors such as the speaker’s role and aims in the interaction are important in accounting for the distribution of hedges. They also support the claim that women tend to adopt a facilitative role in conversation and discussion more often than men do. (p. 162)
She points out that even though it is very difficult to quantify and qualify
function both in terms of validity and reliability, “it is time to reject the undimensional
[sic] view implicit in Lakoff’s misleading label ‘women’s language’ and to consider the
possibility that the forms referred to with this label are among those used by the more
skillful and supportive conversationalists in a speech community to realize a wide range
of functions and communicative strategies” (p.172).
In conclusion, we can say that to be a ‘good’ teacher and in this case a ‘good’
foreign language teacher, one first must possess the characteristics essential in affective
14
teaching which are empathy, sensitivity, being accommodating and emotionally
connected. If teachers are to perform the role of facilitator well, they will use all the
necessary forms in their speech to do so regardless of their gender. Through research it
has been shown that in American society mothers tend to be accommodating in their
relationships with their children. Due to motherdaughter bonding where the daughter
grows up identifying with her mother this cycle of mothering would reinforce this role as
well as verbal behavior in women. Therefore, women have been socialized into the role
of facilitator which in turn would make it natural for them to transfer this skill into
professions where it is needed, in this case teaching. In order to account for the high
number of female teachers in foreign language education as compared to male teachers,
other factors such as social, cultural, political and economic must be taken into
consideration along with gender for a truer representation of these discrepancies.
III
Method
To test the hypothesis that there are gender differences in language which would
give females an added advantage in regards to characteristics needed to be a ‘good’
teacher in affective education, the differences were examined in feedback given to a
foreign language learner’s written production by a nonexpert college educated
population of males and females ages 2545 which were gathered by class
members. It was predicted that in general the feedback given by nonexpert females
would be more supportive than the feedback given by the nonexpert males.
15
The composition and questionnaire (see Appendix) were handed out to twenty
students in class along with instructions. Each student received ten of each, making it a
total of two hundred distributed to be handed back again.
IV
Results
The sample attained from this pilot study was too small to play a significant role
in the interpretation of findings which would give support to the initial hypothesis .
However, for future purposes the results would have been measured in the
following way. The evidence for “supportive” language would have been the amount of
comments given as feedback on the compositions apart from any other marking. The
quality and quantity of comments would have been analysed between males and females
with most supportive being comments made on both the composition and feeback form
while least supportive would have been no comments at all; neither on the composition
nor on the feedback form.
V
Discussion
There are some serious reasons why this pilot study was not able to produce the
results it sought. Editing a composition is not only timeconsuming but also not a
pleasurable experience for most people. It is a skill which editors or teachers acquire
through many years of training and experience. For an expert population this
16
composition both in length and content may have not have posed a problem. However, it
was not appropriate for a nonexpert population. A shorter piece of text should have been
chosen with a more discreet marking code given to facilitate the marking process.
This pilot study should have been carried out on an expert population for the
reasons discussed above. In future, should this study be carried out, results from an expert
population could provide some evidence that language is not solely affected by gender
but by other factors such as role and context. That is why it is important to take into
account how language is used and not necessarily by whom.
However, of the questionnaires that were returned, six out of eight were
completed by females which does give us some indication that females are more willing
to express themselves in this context. Nevertheless, for obvious reasons this evidence is
inconclusive. It would be hoped that for future purposes the criticisms above would be
taken into account to conduct another pilot study which would yield more results and
therefore more information about language differences in females and males in this
context.
VI
References
Begin, Y. (1971). Evaluative and Emotional Factors in Learning a Foreign Language. Montreal:Desclee & CIE Bellarmin.
Bergman, S.J., & Surrey, J.L. (1997). The womanman relationship: Impasses and possibilities. In J.V. Jordan (Ed.), Women’s Growth in Diversity: More writings from the Stone Center (pp. 260287). NY: The Guilford Press.
17
Boe, S.K. (1987). Language as an expression of caring in women. Anthropological Linguistics, 29, 271285.
Cameron, D. (1992). Not gender differences but the difference gender makes – explanation in research on sex and language. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 94, 1326.
Carli, L.L. (1990). Gender, language and influence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 941951.
Chodorow, N.J. (1974). Family structure and feminine personality. In M.Z. Rosaldo & L. Lamphere (Eds.), Women, Culture, and Society (pp.4565). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Disick, R.S. & Barbanel, L. (1974). Affective education and foreign language learning. In A.G. Jarvis (Ed.), The Challenge of Communication: ACTFL Review of Foreign Language Education, 6, (pp.185222). Skokie, IL: National Textbook Company.
McMillan, J.R., Clifton, A.K., McGrath, D., & Gale, W. (1977). Women’s language: Uncertainty or interpersonal sensitivity and emotionality? Sex Roles, 3, 545559.
Dixon, A.J., & Foster, D.H. (1997). Gender and hedging: From sex differences to situated practice. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 26(1), 89107.
Fishman, P.M. (1978). Interaction: The work women do. Social Problems, 25, 397406.
Freed, A.F, & Greenwood, A. (1996). Women, men, and type of talk: What makes the difference? Language in Society, 25(1), 126.
Gass, S. M., & Selinker, L. (Eds.). (1994). Second Language Acquisition: An introductory course (p. 78). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Gilligan, C. (1982 June). Why should a woman be more like a man? Psychology Today, pp. 7071,7374,77.
Hiatt, M. (1977). The Way Women Write. NY: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.
Holmes, J. (1984). ‘Women’s language: A functional approach. General Linguistics, 24 (3), 149178.
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Holmes, J. (1995). Women, Men and Politeness. NY: Longman.
Jordan, J.V. (1997a). Clarity in connection: Empathic knowing, desire, and sexuality. In J.V. Jordan (Ed.), Women’s Growth in Diversity: More writings from the Stone Center (pp. 5073). NY: The Guilford Press.
Jordan, J.V. (1997b). A relational perspective for understanding women’s development. In J.V. Jordan (Ed.), Women’s Growth in Diversity: More writings from the Stone Center (pp. 924). NY: The Guilford Press.
Lakoff, R. (1975). Language and Woman’s Place. New York: Harper Colophon Books.
Laine, E.J. (1987). Affective Factors in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching. Jyvaskyla: University of Jyvaskyla.
Littlewood, W.T. (1984). “Accounting for differences between learners.” Foreign and Second Language Learning: Languageacquisition research and its implications for the classroom (pp. 5859). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Miller, J.B., Jordan, J.V., Kaplan, A.G., Stiver, I.P., & Surrey, J.L. (1997). In J.V. Jordan (Ed.), Women’s Growth in Diversity: More writings from the Stone Center (pp. 2549). NY: The Guilford Press.
Ochs, E. (1992). Indexing gender. In A.Duranti & C. Goodwin, (Eds.), Rethinking Context: Language as an interactive phenomenon, (pp. 335358). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rivers, W.M. (1987). Interaction as the key to teaching language for communication. In W.M. Rivers (Ed.), Interactive Language Teaching, (pp. 316). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rohrbaugh, J.B. (1997). Theories of Gender Development: Major approaches to diversity, status, and power. Unpublished paper, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School.
Scarcella, R., & Brunak, J. (1981). On speaking politely in a second language. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 27, 1134.
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APPENDIX
The composition below was written by a foreign student at our school. The student has made various errors in their attempt to express themselves. As a native speaker of English, your feedback is important to this student who wants to improve their English. Please give this student some feedback on their use of English by briefly correcting the composition. Feel free to mark the paper in any way you wish. Your comments and time are greatly appreciated.
THE PERSON THAT MOST INFLUENCED MY LIFE
I would like to express my deep regards and appreciate to my supervisor professor who helped me alot during my study in the College andhelped me alot during my project to get the B.Sc. from the College.
After that he advised me to complete my post graduate and help me alot to get an admission from the university here in United State.
I never forget the time I spent it with him, and I’d never forgotten his kindness and helpful during my study and during my working as a teacher assistant in my University from which I get a full schoolarship to complete my study here. He is the best teacher of mine, all the time he said to me “Consider me as your father, brother, friend … etc” he is really the best younger brother of mine.
I really can’t return back his favour, he made me make up my mind to complete my study, and he offered me all what I want. He encouraged me and help me to come here for studying, before that I refused to complete the study. All times he invited me to his office and talk to me, solve my problems and advice me how to get the best things, the best friends, how to life with peoples, how to solve the problems you may contact and not to resign for these life.
I’ll never forget this person, and I hope I can do everything for him to return back a portion that he did for me.
(Gass & Selinker, 1994)20
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