Who gets ‘ they’ ? Epicene pronoun use in essays by U.S. secondary school ESL students

The prominence of gender-inclusive language has stimulated growing interest in English epicene pronouns, particularly singular they. While previous research has focused primarily on university-level English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners, little is known about younger and English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners. This study examines the use of three epicene pronouns (generic he, he or she, and singular they) in a corpus of 3,840 essays (1.57 million words) written by Grade 8 and Grade 12 ESL students in the United States. These pronouns were analysed across antecedent types, grade levels, and genders. The results revealed an overall predominance of singular they. Pronoun choice varied by antecedent type, with singular they preferred with less individuated antecedents (quantificational noun phrases and indefinite pronouns), whereas generic he and he or she occurred more with more individuated antecedents (definite and indefinite noun phrases). Students in higher grades used generic he more frequently than those in lower grades across both gender groups. Among female students, those in higher grades used he or she more frequently than their lower-grade counterparts. Moreover, female students demonstrated a stronger preference for singular they and less use of generic he than male students across both grade levels. These findings highlight the importance of linguistic, educational, and social factors in gender-inclusive pronoun use among secondary school ESL learners.