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January 31, 2026
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February 13, 2026
Published
February 16, 2026
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Abstract

This study examined the frequency of gender-neutral language (GNL) use in the academic outputs of third-year Bachelor of Arts in English Language students at Bukidnon State University. Moreover, it explored the sociocultural factors influencing student use of GNL in academic contexts. The study utilized a convergent-parallel mixed-method design. It analysed students’ use of gender-neutral generic nouns, job titles, and pronouns across three written outputs (reflective essay, feature writing, and hard news writing) per participant. Guided by Linguistic Relativity and Social Constructionism Theory, the quantitative data consisted of frequency of corpus data, short checklist scores, and interview codes, which revealed the levels, patterns, and correlation of GNL use and awareness. Whereas the qualitative data were derived from interview excerpts, which clarified why these patterns occurred and how students made sense of GNL in authentic academic contexts. Findings revealed that students frequently used gender-neutral generic nouns and job titles, while gender-neutral pronouns were the least used due to hesitancy in restructuring sentences. Furthermore, this study revealed four sociocultural influences: awareness and knowledge, personal beliefs and values, cultural and societal norms, and globalized media. During the integration, the findings mostly converged when high awareness aligned with more accurate GNL use, while some findings diverged when students had positive attitudes but low grammatical accuracy. Overall, despite inconsistencies influenced by religious beliefs, traditional upbringing, and pronoun confusion, students demonstrated growing awareness of gender-neutral language. The merged findings provide a holistic basis for guiding gender-sensitive communication policies in academic contexts.


[Penelitian ini mengkaji frekuensi penggunaan bahasa inklusif gender (gender-neutral language/GNL) dalam karya akademik mahasiswa tahun ketiga program studi Sastra Inggris di Bukidnon State University. Selain itu, penelitian ini mengeksplorasi faktor-faktor sosiokultural yang memengaruhi penggunaan GNL oleh mahasiswa dalam konteks akademik. Penelitian ini menggunakan desain metode campuran konvergen-paralel (convergent-parallel mixed-method). Analisis dilakukan terhadap penggunaan kata benda generik netral gender, gelar pekerjaan, dan kata ganti dalam tiga karya tulis (esai reflektif, tulisan feature, dan penulisan berita lugas/hard news) dari setiap partisipan. Dengan berlandaskan pada teori Relativitas Linguistik dan Konstruksionisme Sosial, data kuantitatif yang terdiri dari frekuensi data korpus, skor daftar periksa (checklist), dan kode wawancara, mengungkapkan tingkat, pola, serta korelasi antara penggunaan dan kesadaran GNL. Sementara itu, data kualitatif diperoleh dari kutipan wawancara yang mengklarifikasi alasan terjadinya pola-pola tersebut dan bagaimana mahasiswa memaknai GNL dalam konteks akademik yang autentik.Temuan menunjukkan bahwa mahasiswa sering menggunakan kata benda generik dan gelar pekerjaan yang netral gender, sedangkan kata ganti netral gender paling jarang digunakan karena adanya keraguan dalam merestrukturisasi kalimat. Lebih lanjut, penelitian ini mengungkapkan empat pengaruh sosiokultural: kesadaran dan pengetahuan, keyakinan dan nilai pribadi, norma budaya dan masyarakat, serta media global. Selama proses integrasi, temuan-temuan tersebut sebagian besar menunjukkan konvergensi ketika kesadaran yang tinggi sejalan dengan penggunaan GNL yang lebih akurat, sementara beberapa temuan menunjukkan divergensi ketika mahasiswa memiliki sikap positif namun memiliki akurasi gramatikal yang rendah. Secara keseluruhan, terlepas dari inkonsistensi yang dipengaruhi oleh keyakinan religius, pola asuh tradisional, dan kebingungan penggunaan kata ganti, mahasiswa menunjukkan kesadaran yang berkembang terhadap bahasa inklusif gender. Temuan yang digabungkan ini memberikan dasar holistik untuk memandu kebijakan komunikasi responsif gender dalam konteks akademik.]

Keywords

gender-neutral language usage pattern awareness sociocultural influence academic writing

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Copyright (c) 2026 Kristine Joy Francisco (Author)

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Gender-Neutral Language: Awareness, Usage Patterns and Sociocultural Influences among English Language Students: Bahasa Inklusif Gender: Kesadaran, Pola Penggunaan, dan Pengaruh Sosiokultural di Kalangan Mahasiswa Bahasa Inggris. (2026). SiRad: Pelita Wawasan, 2(1), 123-136. https://doi.org/10.64728/sirad.v2i1.art10
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How to Cite

Gender-Neutral Language: Awareness, Usage Patterns and Sociocultural Influences among English Language Students: Bahasa Inklusif Gender: Kesadaran, Pola Penggunaan, dan Pengaruh Sosiokultural di Kalangan Mahasiswa Bahasa Inggris. (2026). SiRad: Pelita Wawasan, 2(1), 123-136. https://doi.org/10.64728/sirad.v2i1.art10

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