Gender voices in Chinese university students’ English writing: A corpus study

Abstract

Gender fair language aims to reduce gender-bias and discrimination. However, little research has focused on how L2 English learners use these expressions. The present study seeks to investigate whether recent improvements in the social status of women in China are reflected in gender representation in university students’ writing. A corpus study is conducted to investigate how the L2 English learners in China use epicene pronouns, i.e. gender-neutral third person singular pronoun in Written English Corpus of Chinese Learners (WECCL2.0). AntConc 3.5.8 is adopted to analyze the patterns of epicene pronoun-singular they, generic he, and he or she in the corpus in relation to antecedent types. The findings indicate that more effort is needed to promote gender fair language use for L2 learners in China and a shift in focus from “accuracy” to “appropriateness” is necessary when it comes to the use of language in L2 English teaching and learning.