ESL Practice Activities for Gender Pronouns

Gender pronouns are an important part of learning English.

Many ESL students have trouble with several specific parts of grammatical English regardless of their backgrounds and nationalities. These include articles, prepositions and gender pronouns. The controversy surrounding the use of plural gender pronouns in mixed company is one obstacle to becoming a confident English speaker and writer. Therefore, it is crucial to integrate a variety of gender pronoun practice activities into any ESL lesson. These practices should focus on written and spoken English, as well as memorable songs and games. Teachers should also address the important issue of gender neutral agreement while teaching gender pronouns to ESL students.

Writing Practice

When creating a formal document, correct grammar is crucial. This is because style and structure are nearly as important as meaning. Written gender pronoun practice is important to help ESL students convey correct meaning on paper, as well as to understand how to structurally and visually use pronouns to avoid repetition in writing. To help ESL students learn how to write with gender pronouns, give them a prompt describing several people, and then ask them to write a story about the characters using a specified number of male, female and neutral pronouns. Ask them to use these pronouns as both subjects and objects, as well as in the possessive form. You could also ask the students to each write a paragraph describing someone in the classroom without mentioning the individual's name. The students could then read their depictions, allowing the others to guess at the identity of the mystery person.

Speaking Practice

While verbal English grammar tends to be subjective and therefore significantly more casual, ESL students often make more blunders when speaking than writing. This is because conversational language allows little time for translation or elongated thought. A new speaker is often worried about being misunderstood due to a clumsy accent or pronunciation. Therefore, the embarrassing error of calling a female colleague "him," or a male acquaintance "her" frequently occurs. Practice is the best way to avoid such mistakes. To help students use gender pronouns in a stress free environment, have a male and female student perform actions from index cards. The rest of the class can then guess at the action using complete sentences, but without naming the actor. Also, pair students for conversation. Ask them to use a specified number of pronouns during the allotted time.

Games and Songs

Games and songs are good memorization techniques that apply context to grammar rules and allow ESL students the opportunity to see what they are learning utilized in real world situations. This makes them ideal for ESL classroom practice. There are many ways to apply these tools to using spoken and written gender pronouns. Hand out popular magazines to the class. Say or write sentences using gender pronouns, and then ask the students to find pictures in the magazines depicting the words. You could also choose popular songs to play for the class. Have the students write down all the pronouns they hear in the lyrics and then categorize them as male, female or neutral.

Gender Neutral Agreement

While practicing the use of gender pronouns, ESL students must address a controversial dilemma referred to as gender neutral agreement. Traditionally, unknown or coed sex is stated in the masculine. Language, however, continuously evolves with the change of viewpoints. Many modern writers feel that the dominant masculine pronoun is outdated, displaying a disregard for gender equity. Current attempts to fix this issue have included writing and speaking in the passive voice, using both male and female pronouns to discuss unknown or mixed genders, or using the plural form to address an unknown singular. While none of these solutions are perfect, this issue is prevalent enough in the English language to require addressing in class. Give your students a paragraph containing all of the gender neutral agreement methods. Ask them to correct the paragraph, using the method that best fits the context. Request that they explain the reasoning behind their answers.

References

• Your Dictionary: ESL Practice Activities for Gender Pronouns
• Grammar Quizzes: Gender Neutral Agreement

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• ESL Teachers Board: Home
• WritingResource: More Pronoun Exercises
• ESL Desk: English Pronouns
• The Internet TESL Journal: Games and Activities for the English as a Second Language Classroom