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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. 203–226

Chapter 8
In search of the missing grade

Egalitarianism and deference in L1 and L2 students’ emails to faculty members

ORCID logo | National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

The present study investigates the performance of email requests by L1 and L2 Greek University students to faculty members. Drawing from a corpus of authentic data the study seeks to highlight the differences in the way the two groups of students frame their requests in terms of both the structure of the whole speech event and the specific sociopragmatic means employed to achieve the lecturers’ compliance. It is argued that the observed differences reflect different perceptions of the two groups in relation to the degree of entitlement to make the request, as well as different orientations along the egalitarianism/ deference axis. Implications for language teaching are explicated and discussed.

Keywords: email requests, Greek, egalitarianism, deference, sequence, move, appropriateness
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background: Student’s email requests
  • 3.The “missing grade” situation
  • 4.Method: Data, population and analytic tools
  • 5.The findings
    • 5.1Opening sequence
    • 5.2Closing sequence
    • 5.3Content sequence
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusions and implications for language teaching
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 October 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.328.08bel
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