The attitude towards the role of gender in language has been one of progressive change as more establishments, publishers and indeed society aim for gender-neutral pronoun use and terms (inclusive language), as opposed to gender specific (exclusive language). If one reads English authored books from say 20 years ago, there will be many more references to 'he'. However, nowadays it is more likely that he/she, he or she, or even the plural, they will be more commonly observed. Job titles have become gender neutral; for example, the transition from 'fireman' to 'firefighter', 'policeman' to 'police officer', and the list goes on.
What does this have to do with teaching?
Well, not all of the world is migrating from the use of exclusive language; unlike the West, which has been adapting to the change for around the past 30 years (Sudo, 2007). This may mean that you could be placed into an environment where the male remains dominant, and is reflected in the materials you may be expected to work with. Locally produced materials could be full of examples of exclusive language, which is an outdated representation of what is reality beyond the classroom. We need to be prepared to replace exclusive language with inclusive language, possibly through negotiation with our superior(s). Students preparing for studying (at university) overseas are particularly susceptible to this and could fail their courses if they continue to use exclusive language in their assignments and dissertations.
I had always been the best student in my class, always, this is why I took that advanced English composition class. My very first essay was a disaster. My instructor took off two point for each 'he' referring to 'student' and wrote in the margins: 'Use plural: students ...they'. [...] Eventually, I dropped out of that class [...]
(sudo, 2007: 13).
Making students aware of inclusive language is an important issue that needs to be raised whenever it becomes necessary to do so. We cannot assume that our students will remain in their country for the rest of their lives, and for that reason we need to take on the responsibility to teach them reality.
References
Sudo, J. (2007). Teaching New Tendencies in Gender Usage. ELT Journal, 61(1): 12-19.
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Do you teach inclusive language to your students?
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Indeed, there is no grammatical error in using 'he', and you are quite right to suggest the PC element in all of this.
It might be interesting to find out what your colleagues think about inclusive and exclusive language.
The fact that some people are from male dominated areas, as you pointed out, compounds the problem. They will find that culture shock also includes language.
It's different in other languages isn't it? Everything has a gender and you need to adjust the noun itself as well as the pronoun. I personally was a bit miffed after 2 weeks in Germany, to find that my boyfriend had taught me to say "I speak no German, I am an Englishman", when he spoke fluent German and should have known better!
But to refer to an unspecified person as 'he' rather than 's/he' is surely a minor offence? There's no grammatical error, only the vague possibility of political in-correctness or encouraging a male orientated mindset (debatable on both counts anyway).
I haven't come across the problem in real life yet as I've started out with some volunteering. The class is all women so I suppose there'll be over-emphasis on the 'shes' just for practical reasons! In the end I'd probably vote 'yes' if you gave me 6 months to answer, we'll have to see, but I don't think I'd get hung up about it. After all, some women come from male dominated cultures and I don't know if their language reflects that or not.
Thank you for your comment. I'm glad you found it interesting.
I agree that students should be given the opportunity to modify/correct their language. The student was 28 when the quote I referred to was taken. If you read the article by Sudo, there are more examples of where exclusive language has caused problems; E.g. A computer programmer was embarrassed when he said that his classmate's sister was a policeman. He didn't realise that policeman was only for male police officers. His classmates laughed at him. So, this issue is not restricted to writing, but extends into society as a whole.
Thanks for raising that interesting point. As a woman who is totally unthreatened by gender specific pronouns I suppose I assume that that's because it's not really vital in the scheme of things. But I guess that's just my personality! Only after reading this and thinking about it do I realise the importance of the message given out by gender bias in writing. For some, what they constantly read in everyday life must build up into a fixed background of bias that affects their opinions.
Do you really think it's necessary to be so strict that students drop out? Is it not better just to give them what guidance you can and let them make mistakes? Is it possible to fail an English course on such a technicality?
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