“Please answer me as soon as possible”: Pragmatic failure in non-native speakers’ e-mail requests to faculty

Economidou-Kogetsidis, Maria

doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2011.06.006

Cited by 196 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…In relation to the use of external mitigators, differences in favour of BES are found for the use of disarmers, while grounders and minimisers are more frequently used by IES. Results related to the use of please and could as the most frequent request modifiers used by IES, together with the use of external modification, mainly the use of a grounder, support previous ILP research comparing L1 and L2 performance of e-mail requests conducted with adults in academic settings (Hartford & Bardovi-Harlig 1996;Biesenbach-Lucas 2006, 2007Economidou-Kogetsidis 2011;.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 80%

Mitigating e-mail requests in teenagers’ first and second language academic cyber-consultation

Soler

2013

Multilingua

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The study analyses teenagers' e-mail requests during academic cyberconsultation, exploring how the performance of request modifiers is influenced by participants' perceptions of the degree of imposition of the speech act and social distance with the recipient. A total of 295 e-mail requests, 145 produced by British English speakers (BES) and 150 performed by International English speakers (IES), were randomly selected from all the e-mail requests that International Baccalaureate students sent to their learning mentor between September and December 2011. They were analysed with regard to the use of internal and external request mitigators and participants' judgments of the degree of request imposition and social distance with the e-mail recipient. Results of the study show that participants do not frequently rely on mitigators, but whenever they perceive the need to mitigate the request, pragmatic variation is observed between BES and IES. Thus, when the request is perceived as demanding, BES activate their pragmalinguistic knowledge and use a wider range of internal modifiers (both lexical and syntactic). In contrast, IES seem to lack pragmalinguistic knowledge to soften the request. Finally, although teenagers do not perceive their relationship with their learning mentor as one of +social distance, BES and IES show variation in their choice of form of address. Findings from the study suggest the need to incorporate training on e-mail politeness in future pragmatics-based pedagogical interventions.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 80%

Mitigating e-mail requests in teenagers’ first and second language academic cyber-consultation

Soler

2013

Multilingua

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“…What is interesting, however, is that in the second set of email data, both groups decreased their use of direct strategies and increased their use of conventionally indirect strategies. The higher preference for directness among the learners in the first data set fits well with findings in developmental pragmatics in that L2 learners tend to employ far more direct strategies (and fewer internal lexical/syntactic modifiers) than native speakers (Biesenbach-Lucas, 2007;Economidou-Kogetsidis, 2011;Rose, 2000;Trosborg, 1995). Additionally, in the second data set, both the explicit and implicit group opted more frequently for conventionally indirect strategies (62.2 and 70.8, respectively), moving closer to native speaker request strategies (Economidou-Kogetsidis, 2011;Rose, 2000).…”

Section: Email Data Resultssupporting

confidence: 76%

The role of asynchronous computer mediated communication in the instruction and development of EFL learners' pragmatic competence

Eslami

Mirzaei

Dini

2015

System

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“…Comparisons of L1 and L2 refusals as responses to requests, offers, invitations, and suggestions made by some adult native speakers and language learners, such as learners of Greek (Bella 2011 andBella 2014), learners of Spanish (Félix-Brasdefer 2006), and learners of English (e.g., Allami and Naeimi 2011;Bardovi-Harlig and Hartford 1993;Beebe et al 1990;Chang 2009 andChang 2011;Liao and Bresnahan 1996), provide evidence for varied degrees of L1 pragmatic transfer in L2 refusals due to the learner's proficiency level and length of residence in the target community. Unlike requests that have been well researched in terms of semantic formulae from cross-cultural and crosslinguistic perspectives (e.g., Economidou-Kogetsidis 2011;Ellis 1992;Fukushima 1996;Hassall 2003;Lee 2004, Lee 2005, Lee 2011Rinnert and Kobayashi 1999) and L2 developmental patterns from childhood through the teens (Achiba 2003;Rose 2000, Rose 2009), refusals produced by other age groups and the ways in which their refusals' semantic formulae are different from or consistent with adult counterparts and development patterns are rarely investigated and discussed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding refusal style and pragmatic competence of teenage Cantonese English learners in refusals: An exploratory study

Lee

2016

Intercultural Pragmatics

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The paper investigates the refusal style of teenage Cantonese learners of English in terms of strategy use, pattern, order, and content of refusals' semantic formulae quantitatively and qualitatively, and discusses learners' pragmatic competence and refusal style with reference to that of adult native Mandarin Chinese (L1) speakers and Chinese English learners reported in the literature. One hundred fifty-six Cantonese English learners aged between 14 and 18, studying in Form 2, Form 4, and Form 6, participated in the study. Refusals to requests were collected using five closed role plays in which sociolinguistic variables were controlled. It was found that three indirect refusal patterns were generally used by the three age groups across situations, with the strategy of giving a specific reason being dominant. Only the difference in use of single strategy was statistically significant (p < 0.05). The frequency rate of refusing directly decreased when age and language-learning exposure increased. The older teenage learners refused more indirectly than the young ones. The indirect-with-specific-reason refusal style for requests is consistent with the indirect Chinese communication style of adult native Chinese speakers and Chinese English learners. In addition, the direct-then-indirect development in L2 refusals is similar to that in L2 requests and complaints expressed by young Cantonese English learners, and there are some signs of L1 pragmatic transfer. Teenage learners were able to show sociopragmatic competence by using different refusal strategies in face of different request natures and relationships with interlocutors. However, their pramalinguistic resources were limited, and adjuncts did not exist.

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“Please answer me as soon as possible”: Pragmatic failure in non-native speakers’ e-mail requests to faculty

Cited by 196 publications

References 28 publications

Mitigating e-mail requests in teenagers’ first and second language academic cyber-consultation

Mitigating e-mail requests in teenagers’ first and second language academic cyber-consultation

The role of asynchronous computer mediated communication in the instruction and development of EFL learners' pragmatic competence

Understanding refusal style and pragmatic competence of teenage Cantonese English learners in refusals: An exploratory study

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