The Influence of Gender on Oral Communication Strategy Preferences: A Focus on First-Year University Students

Abstract

Oral interaction techniques play a decisive part in bridging communication breakdowns. The motivation for this study arose from our recognition of a lack of clarity regarding male and female students' oral communication strategy preferences among first-year university students during our experience of teaching communicative English skills at Ethiopian universities. The study intended to examine the influence of gender on preferences for oral communication strategies. First-year students from two universities, Wolkite and Wachemo, were selected as participants in the study. One hundred and twenty-five (70 male and 55 female) students were randomly selected to collect quantitative data, and seventeen (ten male and seven female) were purposively selected to gather qualitative data from the first-year batch of the 2024/25 academic year. A descriptive-comparative framework within a convergent-parallel mixed-method design guided the study. The raw data were gathered through questionnaires, observations, and interviews. SPSS version 27 and thematic analysis were used to analyze quantitative and qualitative data, respectively. The findings indicated that gender slightly influences the learners' oral communication strategy preferences. The study recommends that gender-based oral communication strategies should be identified and included in the communicative English skills courses to address gender-related gaps in communication strategies and enhance message delivery.