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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 – [email protected] Shulyateva – [email protected]