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. 203–226

Chapter 8
In search of the missing grade

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

| 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
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.328.08bel
References
Baron, Naomi S.
2002 “Who Sets E-mail Style? Prescriptivism, Coping Strategies and Democratizing Communication Access.” The Information Society 18: 403–413. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Beebe, Leslie, Tomoko Takahashi, and Robin Uliss-Weltz
1990 “Pragmatic Transfer in ESL Refusals.” In Developing Communicative Competence in a Second Language, ed. by Robin Scarcella, Elaine Andersen, and Stephen Krashen, 55–73. New York: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Bella, Spyridoula
(forthcoming) “From the lecturers’ perspective: Politeness evaluations of L1 and L2 students’ emails to faculty members”. To appear in Glossologia 2023.Google Scholar
2011 “Mitigation and Politeness in Greek Invitation Refusals: Effects of Length of Residence in the Target Community and Intensity of Interaction on Non-native Speakers’ Performance.” Journal of Pragmatics 43: 1718–1740. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2012a “Length of Residence and Intensity of Interaction: Modification in Greek L2 Requests.” Pragmatics 22 (1): 1–39. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2012b “Pragmatic Awareness in a Second Language Setting: The Case of L2 Learners of Greek”. Multilingua 31: 1–33. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2012c “Pragmatic Development in a Foreign Language: A Study of Greek FL Requests”. Journal of Pragmatics 44: 1917–1947. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bella, Spyridoula, and Maria Sifianou
2012 “Greek Student E-mail Requests to Faculty Members.” In Speech Acts and Politeness Across Languages and Cultures, ed. by Zarobe Leyre R. Zarobe, and Yiolanda Ruiz de Zarobe, 89–113. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Biesenbach-Lucas, Sigrun
2006 “Making Requests in E-mail: Do Cyber-Consultations Entail Directness? Toward Conventions in a New Medium.” In Pragmatics and Language Learning. Volume 11. [National Foreign Language Resource Center], ed. by Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig, César C. Felix Brasdefer, and Omar Alwiya, 81–107. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
2007 “Students Writing E-mails to Faculty: An Examination of E- politeness Among Native and Non-native Speakers of English.” Language Learning and Technology 11 (2): 59–81.Google Scholar
2009 “Little Words that Could Impact One’s Impression on Others: Greetings and Closings in Institutional Emails”. In Little Words: Their History, Phonology, Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics and Acquisition, ed. by Ronald P. Leow, Héctor Campos, and Donna Lardiere, 183–195. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Bjørge, Anne Kari
2007 “Power Distance in English Lingua Franca Email Communication”. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 17 (1): 60–80. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bloch, Joel
2002 “Student/teacher Interaction via E-mail: The Social Context of Internet Discourse.” Journal of Second Language Writing 11 (2), 117–134. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana, Juliane House, and Gabriele Kasper
1989 “Investigating Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: An Introductory Overview.” In Cross-cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies, ed. by Shoshana Blum-Kulka, Juliane House, and Gabriele Kasper, 1–34. Norwood, N.J. Ablex.Google Scholar
Blum-Kulka, Shoshana Juliane, House, Juliane, and Gabriele Kasper
(eds) 1989 Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: Requests and Apologies. Norwood, N.J. Ablex.Google Scholar
Bou-Franch, Patricia
2006 “Solidarity and Deference in Spanish Computer-mediated Communication: A Discourse Pragmatic Analysis of Students’ Emails to Lecturers.” In Ways into Discourse, ed. by Patricia Bou-Franch, 61–79. Granada: Comares.Google Scholar
2011 “Openings and Closings in Spanish Email Conversations.” Journal of Pragmatics 43: 1772–1785. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2013 "EFL email writing: A focus on pragmatic transfer". In Acquisición de Segundas Lenguas en el Marco del Nuevo Milenio: Homenaje a la Profesora María del Mar Martí Viaño, ed. by Nicolás Estévez Fuertes and Begoña Clavel-Arroitia, 39-56. Velència: Facultat de Filologia, Traducció i Comunicació, Universitat de València.Google Scholar
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen C. Levinson
1987 Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Chi-Fen Emily
2006 “The Development of E-mail Literacy: From Writing to Peers to Writing to Authority Figures.” Language Learning and Technology 10 (2): 35–55.Google Scholar
Chen, Yuan-shan
2015 “Developing Chinese EFL Learners’ Email Literacy through Requests to Faculty”. Journal of Pragmatics 75: 131–149. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Council of Europe
2001 Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Language Policy Unit, Strasburg.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: 3193–3215. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2012 “Modifying Oral Requests in a Foreign Language: The Case of Greek Cypriot Learners of English.” In Interlanguage Request Modification, ed. by Maria Economidou-Kogetsidis, and Helen Woodfield, 163–202. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 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): 489–515. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fairclough, Norman
1995 Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Félix-Brasdefer, César
2012 “E-mail Requests to Faculty. E-politeness and internal modification.” In Interlanguage Request Modification, ed. by Maria Economidou-Kogetsidis, and Helen Woodfield, 87–118. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fleischman, Suzanne
2001 “Language and Medicine.” In The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, ed. by Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen, and Heidi E. Hamilton, 470–502. London: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Georgakopoulou, Alexandra
2004 Language@Internet 1 www​.languageatinternet​.de, urn:nbn:de:0009-7-364> ISSN 1860-2029.
Hartford, Beverly S., and Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig
1996 “At your Earliest Convenience: A Study of Written Student Requests to Faculty.” In Pragmatics and Language Learning, Volume 7, ed. by Larry Bouton, 55–59. Division of English as an International Language, University of Illinois: Urbana Champaign.Google Scholar
Hirschon, Renée
2001 "Freedom, solidarity and obligation: The sociocultural context of Greek politeness." In Linguistic Politeness Across Boundaries: The Case of Greek and Turkish, ed. by Arin Bayraktaroğlu and Maria Sifianou, 17-42. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Li, Wei
2018 Pragmatic Transfer and Development: Evidence from EFL Learners in China. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lorenzo-Dus, Nuria, and Patricia Bou-Franch
2013 “A Cross-Cultural Investigation of Email Communication in Peninsular Spanish and British English: The Role of (In)formality and (In)directness.” Pragmatics and Society 4 (1): 1–25. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Merrison, Andrew John, Jack Wilson, Bethan Davies, and Michael Haugh
2012 “Getting Stuff Done: Comparing E-mail Requests from Students in Higher Education in Britain and Australia.” Journal of Pragmatics 44: 1077–1098. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ogiermann, Eva and Spyridoula, Bella
2020 “An Interlanguage Study of Request Perspective: Evidence from German, Greek, Polish and Russian Learners of English.” Contrastive Pragmatics 1: 1–30. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pan, Ping Cathy
2012 “Interlanguage Requests in Institutional E-mail Discourse.” In Interlanguage Request Modification, ed. by Maria Economidou-Kogetsidis, and Helen Woodfield, 119–161. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Savić, Мilica
2018 “Lecturer Perceptions of Im/politeness and In/appropriateness in Student E- mail Requests: A Norwegian Perspective.” Journal of Pragmatics 124: 52–72. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Searle, John
1969 Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sinclair, John and Mathew Coulthard
1975 Towards an Analysis of Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stroínska, Magda, and Vikki Ceccetto
2013 “Facework in Intercultural Email Communication in the Academic Environment.” In Language and Intercultural Communication in the New Era, ed. by Farzad Sharifian, and Maryam Jamarani, 160–180. New York/ London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Stubbs, Michael
1983 Discourse Analysis: The Sociolinguistic Analysis of Natural Language. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Trosborg, Anne
1995 Interlanguage pragmatics: Requests, Complaints and Apologies. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin. CrossrefGoogle Scholar