An investigation into language development and pronoun distribution in Hungarian university students’ English writing

Recent changes in academic third-person singular pronoun use in English have an inevitable influence on non-native speakers’ pronoun choices. Studies on third-person singular pronoun usage by non-native speakers are scarce, with varied methodology, focusing on different non-native speakers, thus the results are rather contradictory. The present study aims to investigate how Hungarian native speakers use third-person singular pronouns in their English written works in an academic context throughout their first academic semester as English majors. Results show that while in the first part of the semester singular they is preferred, as per the recommendations of stylistic guides, there is a significant shift in the second part of the semester where avoidance techniques and the indefinite pronoun one becomes more frequent. Pronoun choices seem to be connected to stylistic choices to some extent, but other variables may hold much stronger influence. The study recommends that university educators educate students on the academic standards of third-person singular pronoun choices.