Address strategies in a British academic setting

Abstract

The English system of address constitutes an exception among the European languages, in that it does not have a grammatical distinction between a formal pronoun of address and an informal one. Rather, English speakers exploit lexical strategies (i.e. nominal vocatives). This study aims to shed light on the address strategies used by students and members of the teaching staff in academic interactions, with reference to the University of Reading (UK). Data from semi-structured interviews and video-recordings outline an unmarked pattern of asymmetry between the parties, in which students mainly employ formal vocatives towards lecturers (title+surname, honorifics), while lecturers frequently use first names and other informal expressions. Reciprocal informal vocatives, by contrast, emerges as a marked practice, which is resisted or delayed in time. This asymmetrical distribution of forms questions classical models and previous research on address and calls for the necessity of new components for the understanding of the phenomenon.

Getting stuff done: Comparing e-mail requests from students in higher education in Britain and Australia

“…[I am very sorry,] APOL-2 but if you could put any reading I need to do in my pidgeon hole, I will pick it up as soon as I can. Although both the Australian and British recipients of these e-mails each had a PhD, there was a much higher incidence of students using professional TITLES in the British corpus, consistent with Formentelli's (2009) broader study of the use of address terms used by students to lecturers in British academic settings: A[2/90] < B[19/100]. Ratio = 1:8.56.…”

Strategies of Address in English Lingua Franca (ELF) Academic Interactions

“…If pattern 1 has been previously described in the literature as a default address practice in academic interactions in English, for instance in some American universities and partly in some British universities [7,10], pattern 2 has never been reported as a relevant address practice in Anglophone academic institutions and might be distinctive of ELF courses, as a result of the diverse linguacultural composition of participants. The coexistence of several sociopragmatic norms of reference for address may in fact induce participants to keep on the 'safe side' of more formal and respectful address forms, deemed more appropriate in institutional and hierarchical domains of interaction like the academia, thus minimizing the risks of offending the interlocutor.…”

“…Conversely, a more heterogeneous picture is provided of the address strategies employed towards the teaching staff. While Australian students report using first names as a default strategy [10], British informants are more likely to use V-forms for a certain span of time and shift to T-forms usually after frequent contact and extended collaboration [7]. In American English, on the other hand, the teaching staff is generally addressed with academic titles or honorifics regardless of their teaching position, establishing a non-reciprocal, asymmetrical address pattern [35,36].…”

Cyber-communic@tion etiquette

“…Thus, to materialize their communicative purposes, email writers need to choose specific kinds of lexico-grammatical and stylistic features that are linked to the patterns and standards governing the community to which the receiver of the message belongs. Unsurprisingly, a large volume of studies have been conducted on the socio-cultural factors influencing the discourse strategies that native and non-native email users apply when writing their texts (Bou-Franch, 2011;Eslami, 2013;Formentelli, 2009;Lorenzo-Dus and Bou-Franch, 2013). Focusing on the cultural factors that influence the forms of address native English speakers use, Formentelli (2009) investigated the types of opening and closing moves students use in the emails sent to their faculty members.…”

“…Unsurprisingly, a large volume of studies have been conducted on the socio-cultural factors influencing the discourse strategies that native and non-native email users apply when writing their texts (Bou-Franch, 2011;Eslami, 2013;Formentelli, 2009;Lorenzo-Dus and Bou-Franch, 2013). Focusing on the cultural factors that influence the forms of address native English speakers use, Formentelli (2009) investigated the types of opening and closing moves students use in the emails sent to their faculty members. Based on the analysis of data drawn from video-recordings and interviews, Formentelli found that most British university students indicated a great tendency toward using formal structures when addressing their professors, even though they had grown up in a culture in which informal communications among the members was a norm.…”