GENDER CONFUSION OF THIRD PERSON SINGULAR PRONOUNS 1

Gender confusion of third person singular pronouns in Spanish ESL/EFL learners

Emily Gibbons

Hamline University
GENDER CONFUSION OF THIRD PERSON SINGULAR PRONOUNS 2

Abstract

Spanish ESL learners frequently confuse the third person singular pronouns he and

she when orally producing sentences in the English language. This Advance to Candidacy

Paper is provided as an analysis of the factors as to why this is such a common phenomenon in

Spanish ELLs and an attempt to provide awareness of the semantic confusion to ESL instructors.

Based on the research summarized in the following essay, this particular occurrence

seems to be caused by two major factors that are seen in ELLs with high and low proficiencies in

the second language; the first factor is due to a cognitive overload from processing too much

linguistic information at once, creating errors in the ELLs speech. And the second being an

unconscious yet automatic preference of the masculine pronoun he due to aspects of machismo

present in Latin American culture and sexism in the English language.

Introduction

It is quite a common occurrence for a female to be called he or for a male to be

referenced as she when spoken of by a native Spanish speaker in English. For example,

Spanish speakers may accidentally call a sister he or a father she. Often times, when a

native English speaker converses with a Spanish ELL and encounters the aforementioned error,

the addressee will likely choose to ignore this gender confusion, assuming that it was indeed a

confusion of the language and not a misinterpretation of the persons actual gender. However,

the question still remains, why was this error produced?

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The incident seems quite strange and almost inexplicable as the Spanish ELLs are

accustomed to using gender pronouns for both living beings and inanimate objects in Spanish.

One would suggest that because the learners are familiar with using third person singular

pronouns in the masculine form, l, and the feminine form, ella, that it should not be such a

common occurrence. Surely, if the L2 speaker is accustomed to using specific gender pronouns

in their native language, they shouldnt have such a difficult time using them in English, correct?

In order to understand why this phenomenon occurs, it is important to consider the

intra-language factors and observe some possible theories as to its production as well as to think

outside of the language by taking a look at culture and personal experience.

An important aspect to note is that the confusion presented in the production of the third

person singular pronouns he and she by L2 learners is usually not due to an issue with

grammatical competency. The ELLs tend to know the difference between the two pronouns and

when they should be used. We know this because gender pronouns are rarely confused in the L2

learners writing, and almost solely presented in the oral production of the pronoun. Also,

speakers usually correct themselves upon saying the incorrect pronoun. We particularly see this

in linguist Everetts work Procedural mechanisms as a source of LI influence in L2 production.

(1990) Everett studied gender confusion in the speech production of Chinese and Japanese ESL

participants and found that the participants presented high levels of self-correction after the

production of the incorrect pronoun. Everett claims that self-correction is not possible without

the learner's competence, or knowledge, of the correct grammatical form.

At times, the ELL may produce the incorrect pronoun but will fail to correct themselves.

However, the absence of self-correction should not necessarily be interpreted to signify that the
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ELL is unaware of the distinction between the two gender pronouns. Masanori Kimura (1994), in

his study on the subject of gender confusion of third person singular pronouns, states that this

usually occurs because even if the learners are conscious of the distinctions between the genders

and of the production of the error in their speech, they still may choose not to correct themselves

because they dont feel its absolutely necessary to clarify (p. 6). If clarification of the gender

pronoun isnt vital to the context of the conversation, some ELLs prefer to continue speaking

rather than disrupt the flow of the conversation to correct an error.

Processing errors in Spanish ESL speakers

Kimura (1994) explains that there are two modes of L2 processing: the controlled

mode and the automatic mode. The former is described as the mode that beginner and

intermediate L2 learners usually function at. Processing in the controlled mode requires

constant cognitive control and attention which can affect the accuracy of the ELLs speech.

Kimura infers that, when learners must have a high degree of cognitive control, they cannot

process various linguistic features at the same time since their available cognitive capacity

cannot be allocated to various features all at once. (p. 28-29) In other words, the cognitive load

becomes too heavy for the speaker, forcing them to only focus on key parts of their speech and

therefore unwittingly create errors in other parts; namely, the production of gendered pronouns.

Ins Antn-Mendez (2010) attributes the gender confusion seen in the speech production

of Spanish ELLs to the fact that Spanish is a pro-drop language. That is to say, Spanish is a

language that favors the omission of subject pronouns as long as the subject is clearly identified

throughout the context of the conversation or information being shared. She explains that
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[s]ince English is not a pro-drop language and requires an overt pronoun to occupy the subject

position, one would be inserted, even if not the correct one, and it should take the case which

corresponds to its syntactic function (p. 122). In this case, the pronoun inserted would be one of

the third person singular pronouns; either he or she. Antn-Mndez conducted a study in

which she recorded the number of gender confusion errors of third person singular pronouns

committed by native Spanish and French speakers while speaking in English. The Spanish

speakers were much more prone to commit errors when producing pronouns than the native

French speakers. Antn-Mendez believes that this is due to the fact that French is not a pro-drop

language while Spanish is. Because of this, Spanish speakers are not accustomed to preparing a

pre-verbal message of the pronoun that will be used and so there is an extra step of processing

that speakers must follow in order to create a grammatically correct sentence.

As to why this gender confusion error is only produced in oral speech, that is because

ELLs feel rushed when speaking aloud and pressured to find the correct words than when

writing. The feeling of being rushed causes higher levels of cognitive overload, making the

learner much more likely to create an error in oral production than in written production of the

language.

Cultural effect on production of gender pronouns

The aforementioned information has to do with the controlled mode, a mode of

processing information that requires more cognitive control. But, on the other hand the

automatic mode could also be at fault for errors in gender pronoun production. This mode is

described as the mode that L2 learners with higher levels of proficiency tend to function at,
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where production processing is more automatic and the speaker relies less on retrieving linguistic

features and information from memory (Kimura, p. 29). One issue that may spring from the

automatic mode is that if an L2 learner automatically processes one gender more frequently, it

is likely that the production of the gender pronoun is self-monitored less frequently, leading to a

lack of self-correction when the pronoun is incorrectly produced (Kimura, pg. 42). That is, if the

ELL habitually uses the gender pronoun he as a general pronoun when speaking, it is more

likely that the person will forget to monitor his or herself in the production of the pronoun and

resort to the pronoun that is more frequently used.

Kimura (1994) conducted an experiment where Japanese and Spanish participants were

asked to describe animals in English from childrens stories whose genders were clearly

identified and defined. Kimura found that the Spanish ESL students and native Spanish speaking

graduate students that he studied were more likely to produce errors when describing a female

character than a male character. Kimura inferred that the reason why the Spanish ESL learner

group overused the pronoun he could have been because the participants already had a

processing pattern that tended to select the masculine feature and that, under constrained

conditions in L2 processing, such a processing pattern was triggered to reduce cognitive load (p.

90). However, Kimura believes that the overuse of the masculine pronoun is not only due to the

first languages processing being transferred to the second language. His study also provides

results of Japanese ESL students and graduate students. He found that Japanese graduate students

in the United States also had a tendency to overuse the masculine pronoun, despite the fact that it

could not be attributed to L1 processing. He suspected that because the Japanese students

received long-term exposure to an environment in the United States that presents masculine
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dominance, this might have caused them to become more accustomed to the masculine form of

the pronoun than the feminine and could have contributed to the students forming a processing

pattern that gravitates toward the selection of the masculine gender (p. 92).

Kimura frequently references Larry Selinkers work, Interlanguage. In his 1972

seminal work, Selinker studied gender confusion produced in Serbo-Croation ESL learners

speech. Serbo-Croation is similar to Spanish in the characteristic that the two languages allow for

the deletion of the subject pronoun while producing speech so long as the subject is clearly

identified in the context. Selinker expressed that many Serbo-Croation L2 learners, with differing

levels of proficiency, were inclined to overuse the pronoun he. And suggested that one of the

contributing factors to this could be that the ESL learners were accustomed to "textbooks and

teachers in this interlingual situation [that] almost always present drills with he and never with

she". (p. 218)

One would hope to assume that this factor doesnt quite affect Spanish speakers in the

21st century, particularly due to the fact that large strides have been taken in the past decade or

so to bring gender equality to textbooks and the classroom. These advances in gender equality

make it seem unlikely that younger Spanish speaking ELLs prefer the pronoun he due to

frequent and preferential classroom instruction with the utilization of the masculine pronoun

(Norton & Pavlenko, 2004). However, one must not forget to think about both the L1 and L2

cultures, because a languages culture greatly affects language learners and the speech they

produce. It may be the case that ESL and EFL classrooms provide and advocate gender equality,

however if gender inequality is experienced in the L1 or L2 cultures (or both), it is likely that the

speaker will develop a preference to one gender pronoun over the other.
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Hispanic and latino culture is known for its machismo, the tendency that both female

and male latinos have to believe that men are naturally the superior gender. The Encyclopaedia

Britannica defines machismo as the exaggerated pride in masculinity, perceived as power,

often coupled with a minimal sense of responsibility and disregard of consequences. With

machismo, masculine characteristics are highly valued while characteristics that are associated

with females are seen as inferior. In Patricia M. Hernandezs study on machismo (2002-2003),

she speaks of atrocities that women have experienced due to abusive husbands and explains that

the concept of machismo is so entrenched in Latino culture, that even within the U.S., some

Latino men have attempted to use the cultural defense while on trial for abusing their wives.

(pg. 1) This is an extremely unfortunate facet of the latino culture and is most likely passed down

from generation to generation as children watch the actions of their parents and adopt a similar

mindset. Even though some think that machismo is a dying belief in the 21st century, it still

exists in latin america and parts of the U.S. with varying degrees from country to country and in

rural and urban settings.

Unfortunately, gender equality is not much improved in English speaking cultures either.

We can clearly see in movies and books that there is a higher representation ratio of men to

women and a clear preference of male leads. We see this especially with Lisa Maxwell Arters

study (2011) of pronoun use in thirty-eight Caldecott medal and honor childrens books

published from 2000 to 2009. Arter found that the books had a ratio of more than two to one in

respect to male pronouns versus female pronouns present in the writing. In total, 684 male

pronouns were present in comparison to only 313 female pronouns. Kimura (1994) states that if

learners are exposed to the masculine pronouns more often with the misconception that the
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masculine form is the more significant usage, and if they are not encouraged to use non-sexist

language, the masculine form may become a more prominent gender feature in their L2

processing (p. 37). Essentially, the prevalence of masculine pronouns may contribute to the

development of a processing pattern that prefers the masculine pronoun over the feminine

pronoun and is a significant aspect of language for ESL and EFL instructors to be aware of.

Conclusion and Summary

Through the studies mentioned in this paper, we are able to see that there may be two

primary causes of the gender confusion exhibited in Spanish speaking ELLs production of the

third person singular pronouns he and she. The first cause being that those with a lower level

of proficiency are likely functioning at high levels of cognitive processing. These aforesaid L2

learners are functioning with a cognitive overload and therefore commit errors in grammatical

processes that they are not normally familiar with using in language production.

The second cause is present when we see L2 speakers at a higher level of proficiency that

are not inhibited while producing pronouns, but are accustomed to using the masculine pronoun

due to gender inequality in their culture or the English language culture. Their processing has

become automatic, which is actually detrimental to their production of language because if

preferences are made the frequent production of specific errors may become apparent. For

example the speakers may prefer to use the masculine pronoun when a feminine pronoun is

required.

It is imperative for ESL and EFL instructors that primarily teach Spanish speaking ELLs

to be aware of both possible factors that are likely the causes of pronoun gender confusion in
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their students speech. However, instructors should particularly focus on the occurrence of

gender preference and the effect that culture has on ELLs. Even if examples of gender inequality

are not explicitly seen in the classroom, students may still be affected by their L1 or L2 culture.

When addressing ESL teachers in her work about sexism in the English language (2009),

Margaret Piercey states that it is up to us to be aware [that] our students are not only learning a

language as a tool to communicate with others, but they are also learning the cultural values that

are embodied in the language. (p. 111) It is vital for ESL and EFL teachers to constantly take

into account the cultures of both the L1 and L2 of the speaker and how they may affect the

ELLs speech.
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Arter, L. M. (2011). Children's perceptions of gender as studied through pronoun use (order no.

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Everett, R. 1990. "Procedural mechanisms as a source of LI influence in L2 production." Papers

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Hernandez, P. (2002-2003). Myth of Machismo: An Everyday Reality for Latin American

Women, The. St. Thomas Law Review 15(4), 859-882.

Kimura, M. (1994). Gender confusion in the use of english third person singular pronouns by

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