TY - JOUR AU - Reilly-Thornton, Ashley PY - 2021/12/09 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Gendered Pronouns in Chinese EL2 Speech: The Case of Epicene Pronouns JF - TEANGA, the Journal of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics JA - TEANGA VL - 28 IS - SE - Articles DO - 10.35903/teanga.v28i.697 UR - https://journal.iraal.ie/index.php/teanga/article/view/697 SP - 247-277 AB - <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This paper presents an exploratory study on the usage of epicene pronouns in the speech of Chinese EL2 students, who were undertaking a Master’s programme in the UK. The reasons for speakers’ use or non-use of epicene pronouns is also explored to provide a fuller picture of the speakers’ usage as well as their perceptions of gender-inclusive pronouns. An elicitation based speaking task was used to gather epicene pronoun usage. This was followed by a semi-structured interview utilizing stimulated recall techniques to gather data on the participants’ reasons for use or non-use of epicene pronouns as well as their perceptions of gender-inclusive pronouns. The findings showed that singular </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">they</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> was the epicene pronoun used most often, with the reason being that the participants were imagining a group of people. The avoidance strategy employed most often by participants was usage of the pronoun </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">you</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and the participants’ reasoning was that it made the response more personal for the listener. Regarding the different antecedent types, there was a higher number of avoidance strategies used with notionally plural antecedents. On the other hand, notionally singular antecedents were found to have a higher number of epicene pronouns used. For EL2 educators, these findings can inform the introduction of epicene pronouns to students. </span></p> ER -