Students' Perception of Social Contextual Variables in Mitigating Email Requests

Authors

  • Victoria Codina-Espurz Universitat Jaume I

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17561/grove.v29.6644

Keywords:

email requests, imposition, mitigation, perception, power, social distance

Abstract

Given the power imbalance between students and faculty members, many studies on email communication have focused on how email requests are performed in an academic setting. Research has illustrated that power-incongruent emails can lead to pragmatic failure and cause a negative effect on the email recipient. The present study explores how contextual variables, such as social distance, power and imposition are perceived by EFL students in three different situations in an academic context. Moreover, the study examines the degree of request mitigation performed by learners to adjust to these social contextual variables. Findings reveal that learners seem to be aware of social contextual variables, but they do not appear to mitigate email requests accordingly.

 

 

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Author Biography

Victoria Codina-Espurz, Universitat Jaume I

Victoria Codina Espurz is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Universitat Jaume I. Her research interest embraces the area of interlanguage pragmatics; in particular, the role of instruction of speech acts (i.e., requests, refusals). and the study of email communication between students and faculty in a university setting.

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Published

2022-12-23

How to Cite

Codina-Espurz, V. (2022). Students’ Perception of Social Contextual Variables in Mitigating Email Requests. The Grove - Working Papers on English Studies, 29, 57–79. https://doi.org/10.17561/grove.v29.6644