Effect of Different Teaching Techniques on the Acquisition of Grammatical Gender by Beginning German Second Language Learners

The grammatical gender of German nouns continues to pose a challenge to second language learners. Following from a connectionist framework, this study explores the effect of two input enhancement techniques, color-coding and gendered actors, on the learning of grammatical gender by beginning learners of German during a vocabulary acquisition activity. Results on an immediate post-test show no significant differences between conditions. In the delayed post-test, however, the control group experienced a significant decrease in accurate gender assignment of the target items, while the gendered actor group displayed a non-significant loss in scores, and the color-coding group actually displayed slightly better scores compared to the immediate post-test. These results suggest that color-coding might be the most effective, while also the least work-intensive, technique for instructors to implement. Further pedagogical implications resulting from this study are discussed.