International Faculty Perceptions of Requestive Emails by Korean University Students

Abstract

The present study examines foreign faculty members` perceptions of requestive email messages sent by Korean university students and further identifies factors contributing to each member`s positive or negative perception of the email. An analysis of 150 requestive email messages and three faculty members` evaluations on the email politeness and appropriateness reveals that the majority of student emails fail to follow politeness norms and conventions expected in academic emails, leading to negative reactions on the part of faculty. The results of the study suggest that the appropriateness of a given academic email is determined by an interplay of various factors concerning the email format (e.g., form of address, sign-off, and other genre-specific elements), language forms (e.g., request strategies, linguistic and orthographic forms, degree of formality), and the content (e.g., clarity of request, request content, and time frame). The findings are discussed further relating to possible reasons for the email inappropriateness observed in the data: students` insufficient pragmalinguistic knowledge, improper assumptions about institutional rights and obligations of the student and the faculty, transfer of text-messaging practices, and simple carelessness. Pedagogical implications are discussed regarding the findings.