Abstract

With universities and other academic institutions now creating policies regarding the use of pronouns and the rights of individuals to use the pronouns they prefer, use of the singular they pronoun in academic discourse is a relatively new phenomenon and not one that is typically studied by English as a second language (ESL) students before their arrival in a predominantly English-speaking country. To date, whether international students are aware of this phenomenon has yet to be explored; lack of this awareness could lead to a range of communication problems. To address this gap, the present exploratory study examined what pronouns university-level ESL students use when writing about a non-gender specified person (e.g. "the ideal student"), and whether they understand the use of singular they in discourse. The data reveal that participants from various proficiency levels use and understand use of singular they in context. However, eleven out of 34 participants (32.4%) do not understand singular they in the provided context. The findings of this study inform ESL instruction and curriculum development in accurately assessing the English language knowledge of students in this area, and tailoring instruction to their needs.

摘要

随着大学和其他学术机构现在制定有关代词使用和个人使用其偏好代词的权利的政策，在学术语篇中使用他们的单数代词是一种相对较新的现象，并不是英语通常会研究的一种现象。第二语言（ESL）学生到达主要是英语国家之前。迄今为止，尚未研究国际学生是否意识到这一现象；缺乏这种意识可能会导致一系列沟通问题。为弥补这一空白，本探索性研究研究什么代词大学水平的ESL学生写关于非性别指明的人（例如，“理想的学生”）时使用，以及他们是否了解使用奇异他们在话语中。数据表明，来自不同水平的参与者使用并理解了上下文中他们的单数用法。但是，在提供的上下文中，34位参与者中有11位（32.4％）不理解他们的单数。这项研究的结果为ESL教学和课程开发提供了参考，可准确评估该领域学生的英语知识，并根据他们的需求量身定制教学。