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Email Pragmatics and Second Language Learners
Edited by Maria Economidou-Kogetsidis, Milica Savić and Nicola Halenko
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 328] 2021
► pp. 101–126

Chapter 4
Experts and novices

Examining academic email requests to faculty and developmental change during study abroad

ORCID logo | University of Central Lancashire
| University of Central Lancashire

This longitudinal study seeks to contribute to a shortage of email investigations examining expert (L1) and novice (L2) English practices and tracking L2 developmental change during a UK study abroad period. Using a corpus of 315 authentic request emails, distinct features of Chinese ESL and British students’ email practices were examined, in addition to changes in Chinese ESL practices between the beginning and end of the ten-month period abroad. Findings firstly indicated that choice of request strategies, internal modification, and request perspective showed much variation between the two groups due to different approaches to projecting politeness. Secondly, exposure to the L2 and engagement in email writing had minimal impact on pragmatic performance over the academic year.

Keywords: authentic emails, requests, study abroad, Chinese students, longitudinal study
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background research
    • 2.1L2 English request development and study abroad
    • 2.3Chinese-speakers’ L2 email requests
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Participants and email data
    • 3.2Email analysis
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1Distinctive features of expert and novice English user request emails (RQ1)
    • 4.2Examination of changes in novice L2 user email requests (RQ2)
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Pedagogical implications
  • 7.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 27 October 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.328.04hal
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