Gender, Participation and Silence in the Language Classroom: Sh-shushing the Girls

In this first-hand study of a group of ethnicminority children growing up in Canada, the relationship of gender, ethnicity and participation of children within an English-language teaching classroom is explored. Allyson Jule focuses on reasons for the observable non-participation of the girls in the group and the implications for classroom management and teaching. Making use of these case-study methods, she reassesses Lacan's approach to belonging with other theoretical approaches to gender and language. She asks key questions: 'Are there observable tendencies in the way that boys and girls receive and use talk in the classroom?', and 'How might such tendencies be constructed or encouraged within an ESL classroom, where gender and ethnicity intersect in particular ways?'.