A pronoun is a word used in place of an antecedent noun, or a noun that comes before it. For example: “Bob went to the store and then he went home.” In this case, the pronoun “he” refers back to the antecedent pronoun “Bob.” The pronoun has to agree with the noun it substitutes for in four ways: number, person and gender. The “he’ in the example is singular, third person and masculine just like the noun “Bob.”
Teaching the proper use of a pronoun helps a student to communicate gracefully. Without recourse to pronouns, many sentences would end up awkward and unwieldy. Consider the following sentence: “Sally went to the movie with her friend and then she went home.” Without a reliance upon pronouns the sentence would have to be rewritten as such: “Sally went to the movie with Sally’s friend and then Sally went home.” Pronouns allow a writer to make repeated reference to the same noun without terminological repetition.
Unless your students plan on only using physical gestures to refer to themselves and others, it's imperative that they learn to use pronouns correctly. Pronouns are indispensable to making clear references to subjects, even when there are no antecedent nouns. It would be very difficult to express simple declarative statements such as “I love reading books” without the pronoun “I.” In order to preserve clarity in the absence of “I” the sentence would have to be thoroughly reworked into something like this: “People call me Bob. Bob likes to read books.” Even the clunky “My name is Bob” relies upon the pronoun “my.” Without pronouns, unambiguous reference becomes incredibly difficult, if not impossible.
As work environments become increasingly competitive, it's never more important to present yourself professionally. This requires being able to craft a readable and grammatically sound cover letter for a prospective employer. Putting your best foot forward also demands impressive speaking skills. Both of these are dependent upon the educated use of pronouns. Teaching pronouns is not merely an academic exercise, but is profoundly important to students' future success. If he has no idea how to manage pronoun use effectively, it will be glaringly obvious to those charged with potentially hiring or promoting him.