Email Requests in English:

Implications for TESOLAbigail Reynolds and Tatiana

ShulyatevaNorthern Arizona University

Master’s Student Forum March 25, 2015

Overview Impact & Motivation Studies Implications Suggestions for Future Research Q&A

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Impact & Motivation Successful requests save face. Successful requests help reach your

goal. Emails are widely used. Knowledge about requests helps

make better requests. Knowledge about requests helps

teach how to construct requests.

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Study Data Sender Recipient Rater

Biesenbach-Lucas (2005)

authentic

382 NSs & 151 NNSs

female faculty member

researcher

Iimuro (2006)

authentic

4 NNSs professor researcher

Stephens, et al. (2009)

elicited 1 NSs -> 4 modified emails

faculty member

152 NS instructors;183 NS students

Hendriks (2010)

elicited NNSs employer 110 NSs;158 NSs

Knupsky, Nagy-Bell (2011)

elicited 66 NSs peers and professors

2 NSs

Merrison, et al. (2012)

authentic

190 NSs female faculty member

researchers

Implications: Status Consider difference in status when

you make email requests (Hendriks, 2010; Knupsky & Nagy-Bell, 2011) e.g., student to student vs. student to

professor

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Implications: Imposition

Consider how imposing your request is (Biesenbach-Lucas, 2010) e.g., requesting an appointment

during office hours vs. requesting feedback vs. requesting an extension

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Ways to Make Your Request More Polite

Use proper grammar and punctuation (Stephens et al., 2009)

No text language (Stephens et al., 2009) e.g., R U free? Regardless of age

Use embedded constructions I was wondering if (e.g., Hendriks, 2010;

Biesenbach-Lucas, 2007)

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Language That May Not Affect Politeness

Using Could may not be more polite than using Can (Hendriks, 2010)

Insertion of Please may not make your request more polite (Biesenbach-Lucas, 2007)

Insertion of Possibly may not make your request more polite (Hendriks, 2010)

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Implications: Culture Consider in which culture your

students will be using English Reasons (e.g., employment, health) Greetings (e.g., Hi, Dear Dr. X) Hedging (e.g., just, might)

(Merrison et al., 2012)

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Structure Subject line Term of address used

to refer to teacher Self-identification Account Request Sign off

(Based on Iimuro, 2006;Merrison et al., 2012)

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Suggestions for Future Research

Examining the difference in perception of email requests between professors from different disciplines

Comparing of constructions and judgments of email requests in different cultures

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Thank you!

Q&A

or email us with your requests:Abigail Reynolds – ap2265@nau.eduTatiana Shulyateva – tds245@nau.edu