The video clip you are going to see comes from one of Harry’s lesson. There is an interview with Harry in the writing section and this will give you some background information about this clip. The focus in this clip is on the use of “they/ their/ them” as a general pronoun as in “Anyone who wants can leave when they are ready”. This is an established use and, in the Comedy of Errors Act IV Scene 3, Shakespeare wrote:

    There's not a man I meet but doth salute me
    As if I were their well-acquainted friend.

In Emma, Jane Austen wrote

    Let everybody on the Hill hear me if they can.

This is also communicatively useful because it mean that a writer or speaker does not have to reveal whether they are writing about a man or woman unless they want to.

Activity

1. How did Harry decide that his learners needed help with singular “they”? You may need to look at the clips in the writing section.
2. What kind of information does Harry provide to his learners about singular they? Why does he particularly mention those learners who speak Arabic? If you teach English to learners who speak a language other than Arabic, would you anticipate any problems with singular “they”, either because of their first language or for other reasons?
3. With a cognitive model of learning to use singular “they”, how would the information Harry provides support learning? See section 3.2.2 in Teaching and Learning the English Language (Badger, 2018: 30-33) for more information about cognitive models of learning.
4. What other activities might be required to help learners be able to use singular they? See section 9.5 in in Teaching and Learning the English Language (Badger, 2018: 134- 143)

List of references

Badger, R. 2018. Teaching and learning the English language: a problem solving approach. London: Bloomsbury.