Job Discussion Forums

[InTime]

Not only students do the he--she random-access-memory process.
Actually, randomness would lead to--in the long run---50% Right/Wrong.
BUT...for he/she...the record seems less than 50%
Not only for students...but for English teachers...and even for Chinese Profs who taught in English in English-speaking countries...

Just for comparison, consider:

*In the English-speaking countries, it was standard practice to use "he" as the generic pronoun.
*The Women's Movement in the late 60s--early 70s---brought this to general awareness. So...folks become more equitable...and their was frequent use of "he/she" as a generic pronoun.

In recent decades, there's been a shift...albeit still ungrammatical...to the 3rd person plural as asexual generic for 3rd person singular pronoun, as in:

[grwit]

[vikdk]

Actually this he/she type problem can be viewed in the light of something called - cultural symbolism - or the symbolic weight your cultural upbringing puts on particular words � in short how particular words or word combinations �feel� to us. To get the hang of this BS sounding concept try a bit of swearing in a foreign language - don�t feel quite as good as bit of good ol� L1 F�ing an� blinding
For people who just use a simple ta for he, she or indeed it, its kinda hard to feel anything for these words, while we in turn can feel immense mirth as our cultural roots � which place so much gender feeling in these short pronouns � start to throw up pictures of a trannie in tiara and such when somebody tells us of he the princess
But then again us English L1 folk don�t have much inner feeling for more complicated gender bending stuff found in other languages � you know the le/la kinda guff � but I know for sure that if we don�t get that right then we start to sound a wee bit odd to the native speakers (of course not to the same extent as he/she confusion) while we really can�t �feel� the reason why.
With an L1, while we learn it in our infancy, we develop a cultural understanding of it and its symbolic nuances � and in this light L1 acquisition could be associated with the overall developmental processes of the individual, which is carried out in an environment dominated by a cultural symbolism expressed in the language
While L2 learning � especially if the L2 is learnt in a society that is dominated by another language (learning English in China) � could be viewed as exactly that - more of a straightforward learning process carried out in an environment affected by a whole other cultural symbolism. Which of course means that L2 teaching has to primarily target straight-forward language learning rather than any deeper meaning!!!
No wonder those poor bods get confused now and again with their hes and shes � but probably not half as confused as when they try and figure out why we �feel� it to be so funny