EMAIL REQUESTS FROM STUDENTS TO FACULTY – LITERATURE REVIEW AND PRAGMATICS-FOCUSED RESEARCH

Nasleđe 63 (2026) [275-285]

AUTOR(I) / AUTHOR(S): Katarina M. Ivanović 

Download Full Pdf  

DOI: https://doi.org/10.46793/NasKg2663.275I

SAŽETAK /ABSTRACT:

This paper presents a review of the previous research on requestive emails written in English as a foreign language from university students to their professors. The previous research may be divided into two categories – studies comparing emails written by native English-speaking students with the emails written by a group of non-native students; and studies examining the influence of explicit pragmatics teaching on the use of requests in email writing within non-native participants. The goal of the paper is to explore and summarize the main findings of the previous analyses so that they could be applied to ESP writing classes at the university level. The main difficulties detected in the conducted studies are lowering the level of imposition and the use of appropriate linguistic devices in order to mitigate the strength of a request as a face-threatening speech act. The final conclusions indicate that explicit pragmatics teaching positively contributes to the request writing performance; therefore, it needs to be incorporated into the ESP writing curricula.

KLJUČNE REČI / KEYWORDS: 

email writing, requests, pragmatic knowledge, request modification strategy, explicit pragmatics teaching

PROJEKAT / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

LITERATURA/ REFERENCES:

  • Alcon-Soler, E. (2015). Instruction and pragmatic change during study abroad email communication. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, vol. 9, pp. 34-45.
  • Balman, R. P. and Lee, S. (2020). Making requests to professors in emails: An examination of request modifications performed by Indonesian students in Japan. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 16(3), pp. 1237-1250.
  • Biesenbach-Lucas, S. (2005). Communication topics and strategies in email consultation:
  • comparison between American and international university students. Language Learning & Technology, Vol. 9, No 2, pp. 24-46.
  • Biesenbach-Lucas, S. (2006). Making requests in email: do cyber consultations entail directness? Toward conventions in a new medium. In Bardovi-Harlig, K., Felix Brasdefer, J.C., Omar, A. (Eds.), Pragmatics and Language Learning, vol. 11. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, HI, pp. 81-107.
  • Blum-Kulka, S. and Olshtain, E. (1984). Requests and Apologies: A Cross-Cultural Study of Speech Act Realization Patterns. Applied Linguistics, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 196-213.
  • Brown, P. and Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Chang, Y. and Hsu, Y. (1998). Requests on E-Mail: a Cross-Cultural Comparison. RELC Journal, 29 (2), pp. 121-151.
  • Chen, C. E. (2001). Making email requests to professors: Taiwanese vs. American students. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Applied Linguistics, St. Louis, USA.
  • Chen, C. E. (2006). The development of e-mail literacy: from writing to peers to writing to authority figures. Language Learning and Technology 10 (2), pp. 35-55.
  • Economidou-Kogetsidis, M. (2011). ‘Please answer me as soon as possible’: Pragmatic failure in non-native speakers’ e-mail requests to faculty. Journal of Pragmatics 43/13, pp. 3193-3215.
  • Ellis, R. (2008). The Study of Second Language Acquisition (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Felix-Brasdefer, C. (2012). E-mail Requests to Faculty: E-Politeness and Internal Modification. In Economidou-Kogetsidis, M. and Woodfield, H. (Eds.) Interlanguage Request Modification. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 87-118.
  • Ford, S. (2006). The Use of Pragmatics in Email Requests Made by Second Language Learners of English. Studies in Language Sciences, Vol. 5, pp. 143-162.
  • Hardford, B. S. and Bardovi-Harlig, K. (1996). ‘At Your Earliest Convenience’: A Study of Written Student Requests to Faculty. In Bouton, L. (Ed.) Pragmatics and Language Learning, vol. 7, Urbana-Campaign: Division of English as an International Language. University of Illinois, pp. 55-69.
  • Hendriks, B. (2010). An experimental study of native speaker perceptions of non-native request modification in e-mails in English. Intercultural Pragmatics, 7(2), pp. 221-255. DOI 10.1515/iprg.2010.011
  • Huang, L. (2016). Discourse Organization and Features of Email Writing Among EFL Students in Taiwan. In Chen, Ys., Rau, DH., Rau, G. (Eds.) Email Discourse Among Chinese Using English as a Lingua Franca. Springer, Singapore, pp. 37-59 doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-888-5_3
  • Hyland, K. (2003). Genre-based pedagogies: A social response to process. Journal of
  • Second Language Writing, 12(1), pp. 17-29. DOI 10.1016/S1060-3743(02)00124-8
  • Kasper, G. (1994). Interlanguage Pragmatics and Language Teaching. Handout. Waseda University, Japan.
  • Nguyen, T. T. M., Do, T. H. H., Nguyen, T. A., and Pham, T. T. T. (2015). Teaching Email Requests in the Academic Context: A Focus on the Role of Corrective Feedback. Language Awareness 24(2), pp. 169-195.
  • Nguyen, T. T. M. (2018). Pragmatic development in the instructed context: A longitudinal investigation of L2 email requests. Pragmatics, 28(2), pp. 217-252. DOI 10.1075/prag.00007.ngu
  • Ogiermann, E. (2009). Politeness and indirectness across cultures: A comparison of English, German, Polish and Russian requests. Journal of Politeness Research 5, pp. 189-216.
  • Shea, V. (1994). Netiquette. The Internet: Albion Books.
  • Tang, J. (2013). Analysis of Pragmatic Failure from the Perspective of Adaptation. Cross Cultural Communication, 9 (2), pp. 75-79. DOI 10.3968/j. ccc.1923670020130903.3095
  • Taylor, M., Jowi, D., Schreier, H., Bertelsen, D. (2011). Students’ Perceptions of E-Mail Interaction During Student-Professor Advising Sessions: The Pursuit of Interpersonal Goals. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 16/2, pp. 307-330.
  • Thomas, J. (1983). Cross-cultural pragmatic failure. Applied Linguistics, 4, pp. 20-39. DOI 10.1093/APPLIN/4.2.91
  • Zhu, W. (2012). Polite Requestive Strategies in Emails: An Investigation of Pragmatic Competence of Chinese EFL Learners. RELC Journal 43 (2), pp. 217-238.
Post Views: 43