“What le phoque?!”

Abstract

This study explores the information behaviour of staff working in postsecondary education who write work emails in second-language French (L2). The article is inspired by existing research in public administration and translation. An exploratory study is conducted through the use of semi-structured interviews. Three participants (n=3), bilingual in English and French, shared their experiences preparing work emails in French and discussed their consultation of internal, online, and social information resources. The findings highlight several themes: linguistic identity, reliance on prior L2 knowledge, use of online tools like DeepL and WordReference, and consultation with Francophone colleagues for complex questions. These themes help to shape a proposed framework based on Byström and Järvelin's (1995) model, elaborating a process of information seeking according to perceived task complexity. The model also invokes Zipf’s Principle of Least Effort, demonstrating participants' interest in minimizing time and effort in consulting information resources, while prioritizing accurate email content. Overall, the study illuminates how individuals in postsecondary roles navigate writing work emails in a learned language, outlining their information behaviour and the relationship between internal and external information resources.