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This is a secondary research discussion paper on the issue of non-conforming gender-inclusivity or neutrality in foreign language teaching of gender-based languages. Australian universities welcome increasingly diverse populations of students. One source of diversity among the student population is characterised by the notion of gendered identities, and especially the affirmation of the rights of LGBTQIA+ communities. Universities aim to show equal respect to all gendered identities. It entails using the language that is most respectful to refer to people in a non-sexist, gender-neutral, or gender-inclusive manner, and to allow students to use the language they are most comfortable with. The demands for gender-inclusive and/or gender-neutral language brings some new challenges with respect to the teaching of gender-based foreign languages. In this article, I delineate these challenges with regards to the teaching of French as a foreign language. There is a growing body of literature on ESL Queer teaching, but a paucity of information about this issue in the foreign language teaching of gender-based languages. Even the best-intentioned teacher can therefore feel insecure because of the lack of information. I specifically review strategies on how to deal with the introduction of gender-inclusive and gender-neutral modes of expression in foreign language teaching, dealing with so-called inclusive writing and the neo-morphemes that have been proposed, and examine how language teachers can raise awareness among their student population about LGBTQIA+ issues.

This article argues that there is compelling evidence that French ne, even in dialects that still have this particle, is no longer negative, does not determine the scope of negation with respect to other operators, does not have properties of a head (optionality), and therefore cannot be analysed as the head of NEGP in Modern Standard French. Rather, ne should be considered as an affix merged to a Tense projection (TNSP) endowed with sub-label features of polarity. This article argues that this proposal provides a unified solution for the distributional properties of ne in finite and non-finite contexts alike. It especially provides an explanation for the structure of French negative imperatives, which are characterised by the proclisis of argument clitics (ne le prends pas ‘don't take it’), crucially linked to properties of Tense, as opposed to their enclisis in positive imperatives (prends-le ‘take it’) and in spoken registers where ne is absent (prends-le pas ‘don't take it’).

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