On Inclusive Language Usage by Speakers of English as a Foreign Language

Abstract

The paper discusses language changes in contemporary English with regard to recently introduced inclusive expressions and challenges pertaining to activating their usage. The aim of the paper is to illustrate strategies that students use to activate inclusive language and politically correct vocabulary in English as a foreign language and to discuss whether the lexico-grammatical structures may reveal more about difficulties in activating inclusive vocabulary. For students of English as a foreign language, or even speakers whose L1 is English, what may cause certain problems in activating inclusive language is not only the question of being unsure about the correct expression but also being unsure about the syntactic and semantic structure of inclusive forms or expressions. In terms of the lexico-grammatical structures, it is proposed that inclusive language acquisition needs more attention in the future for speakers of English as a foreign language.