Chapter published in:
Email Pragmatics and Second Language Learners
Edited by Maria Economidou-Kogetsidis, Milica Savić and Nicola Halenko
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 328] 2021
► pp. 15–40

Chapter 1
Reformulation on Chinese EFL learners’ email literacy

A preliminary exploration

This study explored the effect of reformulation on Chinese EFL learners’ email pragmatic performance. Two high-intermediate learners of English collaboratively wrote an email (pretest), compared their original email to a reformulated version of it and to a native speaker model in the noticing stage, and revised the pretest email individually (posttest). The results indicated that (a) most of the problems found in pragmatic-related episodes in the pretest were appropriately resolved based on peer discussion; (b) the participants predominantly noticed pragmalinguistic features in the noticing stage; and (c) in the posttest, the number of changes matching the reformulation was higher than the number of those matching the native speaker model. This study closes by providing pedagogical implications for language teachers.
Keywords: reformulation, pragmatic-related episodes, Chinese learners
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methods
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Instrument
    • 2.3Procedures
    • 2.4Data analysis
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Research question 1
    • 3.2Research question 2
    • 3.3Research question 3
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Pedagogical implications and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 27 October 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.328.01che
References
Alcón Soler, Eva
2002 “Relationship between Teacher-led Versus Learners’ Interaction and the Development of Pragmatics in the EFL Classroom.” International Journal of Educational Research 37: 359–377. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Allwright, Richard. L., Marie-Paul Woodley, and Joan Allwright
1988 “Investigating Reformulation as a Practical Strategy for the Teaching of Academic Writing.” Applied Linguistics 9 (3): 236–256. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bardovi-Harlig, Kathleen
2017 “Acquisition of L2 pragmatics.” In The Routledge Handbook of Instructed Second Language Acquisition, ed. by Shawn Loewen and Sato Masatoshi, 224–245. New York: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Yuan-shan
2015a “Developing Chinese EFL Learners’ Email Literacy through Requests to Faculty.” Journal of Pragmatics 75: 131–149. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2015b “Chinese Learners’ Cognitive Processes in Writing Email Requests to Faculty.” System 52: 51–62. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2016 “The Effect of Learner–Learner Interactions on a Multiple-Choice Discourse Completion Task.” Learning, Culture and Social Interaction 9: 55–67. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Yuan-shan, Chun-yin D. Chen, and Miao-hsia Chang
2010 “The Effects of Instruction on Chinese University Students’ Productions of Complaint Behaviors in American English.” Taiwan Journal of TESOL 7 (1): 29–65.Google Scholar
Cohen, Andrew D.
1982 “Writing Like a Native: The Process of Reformulation.” Paper presented at The 16th Annual Convention of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages . Honolulu, HI, May 1–6.
1983 “Reformulating Second Language Compositions: A Potential Source of Input for the Learner.” Paper presented at The 17th Annual Convention of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages . Toronto, Ontario, March 15–20.
1989 “Reformulation: A Technique for Providing Advanced Feedback in Writing.” Guidelines: A Periodical for Classroom Language Teachers 11 (2): 1–9.Google Scholar
Cook, Vivian
2008 Second Language Learning and Language Teaching (4th ed.). London, UK: Hodder Education.Google Scholar
Donato, Richard
1994 “Collective Scaffolding in Second/Foreign Language Learning.” In Vygotskian Approaches to Second/Foreign Language Research, ed. by James P. Lantolf and Gabriela Appel, 33–56. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex.Google Scholar
Economidou-Kogetsidis, Maria
2011 “ ‘Please Answer Me as Soon as Possible’: Pragmatic Failure in Non-native Speakers’ E-mail Requests to Faculty.” Journal of Pragmatics 43 (13): 3193–3215. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2015 “Teaching Email Politeness in the EFL/ESL Classroom.” ELT Journal 69 (4): 415–424. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2018 “ ‘Mr Paul, Please Inform me Accordingly’: Address Forms, Directness and Degree of Imposition in L2 Emails.” Pragmatics 28 (4): 489–516. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Eisenstein, Miriam, and Jean W. Bodman
1986 “ ‘I Very Appreciate’: Expressions of Gratitude by Native and Non-native Speakers of American English.” Applied Linguistics 7 (2): 167–185. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hanaoka, Osamu
2007 “Output, Noticing, and Learning: An Investigation into the Role of Spontaneous Attention to Form in a Four-stage Writing Task.” Language Teaching Research 11 (4), 459–479. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hanjani, Alireza Memari, and Li, Li
2014 “Exploring L2 Writers’ Collaborative Revision Interactions and their Writing Performance.” System 44: 101–114. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ishihara, Noriko
2008 “Transforming Community Norms: Potential of L2 Speakers’ Pragmatic Resistance.” Proceedings of the 2008 Colloquium on Applied Linguistics. Temple University, Japan.Google Scholar
Ishihara, Noriko, and Elaine Tarone
2009 “Subjectivity and Pragmatic Choice in L2 Japanese: Emulating and Resisting Pragmatic Norms.” Pragmatic Competence: Mouton Series in Pragmatics 5, ed. by Naoko Taguchi, 114–130. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Kim, Ha Ram, and Melissa Bowles
2019 “How Deeply do Second Language Learners Process Written Corrective Feedback? Insights Gained from Think-Alouds.” TESOL Quarterly 53 (4): 913–938. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Youjin
2008 “The Contribution of Collaborative and Individual Tasks to the Acquisition of L2 Vocabulary.” The Modern Language Journal 92 (1): 114–130. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Youjin, and Naoko Taguch
2015 “Promoting Task-based Pragmatics Instruction in EFL Classroom Contexts: The Role of Task Complexity.” The Modern Language Journal 99 (4): 656–677. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Youjin, and Naoko Taguchi
2016 “Learner–Learner Interaction During Collaborative Pragmatic Tasks: The Role of Cognitive and Pragmatic Task Demands.” Foreign Language Annals 49 (1): 42–57. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Krashen, Stephen D.
1982 Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Levenston, Edward. A.
1978 “Error Analysis of Free Composition: The Theory and the Practice.” Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics 4 (1): 1–11.Google Scholar
Li, Mimi
2013 “Individual Novices and Collective Experts: Collective Scaffolding in Wiki-based Small Group Writing.” System 41: 752–769. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Liu, Jianda
2007 “Developing a Pragmatics Test for Chinese EFL Learners.” Language Testing 24: 391–416. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
McConachy, Troy
2019 “L2 Pragmatics as ‘Intercultural Pragmatics’: Probing Sociopragmatic Aspects of Pragmatic Awareness.” Journal of Pragmatics 151: 167–176. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mirzaei, Azizollah, Ali Roohani, and Maryam Esmaeili
2012 “Exploring Pragmalinguistic and Sociopragmatic Variability in Speech Act Production of L2 Learners and Native Speakers.” Journal of Teaching Language Skills 31 (3): 79–102.Google Scholar
Nassaji, Hossein
2007 “Elicitation and Reformulation and their Relationship with Learner Repair in Dyadic Interaction.” Language Learning 57 (4): 511–548. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Qi, Donald S., and Sharon Lapkin
2001 “Exploring the Role of Noticing in a Three-stage Second Language Writing Task.” Journal of Second Language Writing 10 (4): 277–303. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, Richard W.
1990 “The Role of Consciousness in Second Language Learning.” Applied Linguistics 11 (2): 129–158. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1993 “Consciousness, Learning and Interlanguage Pragmatics.” In Interlanguage Pragmatics, ed. by Gabriele Kasper and Shoshana Blum-Kulka, 21–42. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2001 Attention. In Cognition and Second Language Instruction, ed. by Perter Robinson, 3–32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Storch, Neomy
2002 “Patterns of Interaction in ESL Pair Work.” Language Learning 52: 119–158. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2008 “Metatalk in a Pair Work Activity: Level of Engagement and Implications for Language Development.” Language Awareness 17 (2): 95–114. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Swain, Merrill, and Sharon Lapkin
2002 “Talking it Through: Two French Immersion Learners’ Response to Reformulation.” International Journal of Educational Research 37 (3–4): 285–304. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Swain, Merrill, and Yuko Watanabe
2013 “Languaging: Collaborative Dialogue as a Source of Language Learning.” In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, ed. by Carol Chapelle, 1–8. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Taguchi, Naoko, and Youjin Kim
2016 “Collaborative Dialogue in Learning Pragmatics: Pragmatic-related Episodes as an Opportunity for Learning Request-making.” Applied Linguistics 37 (3): 416–437. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Takimoto, Masahiro
2012 “Metapragmatic Discussion in Interlanguage Pragmatics.” Journal of Pragmatics 44: 1240–1253. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Thornbury, Scott
1997 “Reformulation and Reconstruction: Tasks that Promote ‘Noticing’.” ELT Journal 51 (4): 326–335. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tocalli-Beller, Agustina, and Merrill Swain
2005 “Reformulation: The Cognitive Conflict and L2 Learning it Generates.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics 15 (1): 5–28. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Van Compernolle, Rémi A.
2011 “Developing Second Language Sociopragmatic Knowledge through Concept-based Instruction: A Microgenetic Case Study.” Journal of Pragmatics 43 (13): 3267–3283. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Vygotsky, Lev S.
1978 Mind in Society. Cambridge, M.A.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wigglesworth, Gillian, and Neomy Storch
2009 “Pair Versus Individual Writing: Effects on Fluency, Complexity and Accuracy.” Language Testing 26 (3): 445–466. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Yang, Luxin, and Ling Zhang
2010 “Exploring the Role of Reformulations and a Model Text in EFL Students’ Writing Performance.” Language Teaching Research 14 (4): 464–484. CrossrefGoogle Scholar