[Mithalwen]

There is evidence for girls being generally more tuned into language - they tend to pick it up quicker than boys whose motor skills develop a bit quicker.

I did languages at university and women outnumbered men about 10 to 1 - however rather sickenly the guys tended to get the firsts... the proportion may be slightly distorted by the fact that my generation of girls were not particularly encouraged to do science. More recently, when I was teaching I learnt that there is a tendancy for girls to show early promise in languages but the boys (with encouragement ) catch them up in the second year. However by this point the groups are often streamed on Y1 results so the top group is full of girls and thenext one down has a clump of bright boys bright boys who you cannot believe re in the second group. This is the reason that some co-ed schools teach languages in single sex groups inthe early years.