Gender Variation in the Writings of Ghanaian Colleges of Education Students: A Study of Syntactic Complexity

Abstract

This study explored the differences in the writings produced by both male and female students in colleges of education in Ghana with respect to syntactic complexity. The study was based on a corpus of two hundred examination essays which were collected from two hundred students in Assin Fosu, Wesley and Presbyterian colleges of education who took the English language Studies course (FDC 211) in 2018/2019 academic year. The study adopted a descriptive design, involving qualitative and quantitative methods. The analysis showed that the male students were more syntactically complex than the female students in their writings. The study established clear variations in the areas of length of production unit, sentence complexity, amount of subordination and coordination and particular structures. It has therefore upheld the difference version of gender and language theory as compared to the discursive theory. Implications and areas for further research are also discussed.