Cover not available

In:Email Pragmatics and Second Language Learners
Edited by Maria Economidou-Kogetsidis, Milica Savić and Nicola Halenko
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 328] 2021
► pp. 41–70

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 2
L2 emails of complaints

Strategy use by low and high proficiency learners of English as a foreign language

ORCiD logo with link | University of Otago
ORCiD logo with link | Vietnam National University Hanoi
Published online: 27 October 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.328.02ngu
Abstract
In this chapter, we analysed the emails of complaints written by 48 low- and high-proficiency Vietnamese EFL learners when communicating with different audiences. The emails were elicited by means of a computerised discourse completion task developed by an international testing organisation. To understand the cognitive processes involved in the learners’ production of complaints, we also analysed think-aloud protocols provided by 8 learners randomly selected from the above pool. Our findings indicate some effect of proficiency on the learners’ pragmatic performance and decision-making processes. However, our findings also show that regardless of proficiency levels, the learners tended to neglect important writing processes. The findings suggest that the learners require pragmatic instruction as well as training in writing processes in order to carry out the email-writing task more effectively.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The study
    • 2.1Research questions
    • 2.2Participants
    • 2.3Data collection
      • 2.3.1The computerised discourse completion task
      • 2.3.2The think-aloud protocol (TAP)
    • 2.4Data analysis
      • 2.4.1Email data
      • 2.4.2TAP data
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Research question 1: What pragmatic strategies did the low- and high- proficiency learners employ to carry out the acts of direct and indirect complaints in emails?
      • 3.1.1Framing moves
      • 3.1.2Realisation strategies
      • 3.1.3Modification
    • 3.2Research Question 2: What cognitive processes did the low- and high-proficiency learners engage in when performing the email writing task?
  • 4.Discussion and conclusion
  • References
  • Appendix
References (57)
References
Alcón-Soler, Eva. 2015. “Pragmatic Learning and Study Abroad: Effects of Instruction and Length of Stay.” System 48: 62–74. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Al-Gahtani, Saad, and Carsten Roever. 2015. “The Development of Requests by L2 Learners of Modern Standard Arabic: A Longitudinal and Cross-sectional Study”. Foreign Language Annals 48 (4): 570–583. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biesenbach-Lucas, Sigrun. 2006. “Making Requests in E-mail: Do Cyber-consultations Entail Directness? Toward Conventions in a New Medium.” In Pragmatics and Language Learning, Vol. 11, ed. by Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig, César J. Félix Brasdefer, and Alwiya Omar, 81–107. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. “Writing Emails to Faculty: An Examination of E-politeness among Native and Non-native Speakers of English.” Language Learning and Technology 11 (2): 59–81.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bjørge, Anne. 2007. “Power Distance in English Lingua Franca Email Communication.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics 17 (1): 60–80. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bou-Franch, Patricia. 2011. “Openings and Closings in Spanish Email Conversations.” Journal of Pragmatics 43: 1772–1785. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bowles, A. Melissa. 2010. “Concurrent Verbal Reports in Second Language Acquisition Research”. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 30: 111–127. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boxer, Diana. 1993. “Social Distance and Speech Behavior: The Case of Indirect Complaints.” Journal of Pragmatics 19: 103–125. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, James Dean, and Theodore Rodgers. 2002. Doing Second Language Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson. 1987. Politeness. Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Camps, Joaquim. 2003. “Concurrent and Retrospective Verbal Reports as Tools to Better Understand the Role of Attention in Second Language Tasks”. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 13 (2): 201–221. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, Chi-fen. 2006. “The Development of E-mail Literacy: From Writing to Peers to Writing to Authority Figures.” Language Learning and Technology 10 (2): 35–55.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, Yuan-san, Der-Hwa Rau, and Gerald Rau (eds). 2016. Email Discourse among Chinese Using English as a Lingua Franca. Singapore: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, Yuan-shan. 2015. “Developing Chinese EFL Learners’ Email Literacy through Requests to Faculty.” Journal of Pragmatics 75: 131–149. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, Yuan-shan, Chun-yin Chen, and Miao-Hsia Chang. 2011. “American and Chinese Complaints: Strategy Use from a Cross-Cultural Perspective.” Intercultural Pragmatics 8 (2): 253–275. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cohen, Andrew, and Elite Olshtain. 1993. “The Production of Speech Acts by EFL Learners.” TESOL Quarterly 27 (1): 33–56. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dalmau, Maria Sabaté I., and Hortènsia Curell i Gotor. 2007. “From ‘Sorry Very Much’ to ‘I’m Ever So Sorry’: Acquisitional Patterns in L2 Apologies by Catalan Learners of English”. Intercultural Pragmatics 4 (2): 287–315. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dun, Karen. 2019. “Aptis Scoring System.” Technical report. London: British Council.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Economidou-Kogetsidis, Maria. 2011. ‘Please Answer Me as Soon as Possible’: Pragmatic Failure in Non-native speakers’ E-mail Requests to Faculty.” Journal of Pragmatics 43: 3193–3215. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. “Variation in Evaluations of the (Im)politeness of Emails from L2 Learners and Perceptions of the Personality of Their Senders”. Journal of Pragmatics 16: 1–19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ericsson, K. Anders, and Herbert A. Simon. 1980. “Verbal Reports as Data.” Psychological Review 87 (3): 216–251. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1993. Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reports as Data (2nd ed.). Boston: MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Félix-Brasdefer, J. César. 2007. “Pragmatic Development in the Spanish as a FL Classroom: A Cross-sectional Study of Learner Requests.” Intercultural Pragmatics 4 (2): 253–286. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. “Perceptions of Refusals to Invitations: Exploring the Minds of Foreign Language Learners.” Language Awareness 17 (3): 195–211. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. “Email Requests to Faculty: E-politeness and Internal Modification.” In Interlanguage Request Modification, ed. by Maria Economidou-Kogetsidis, and Helen Woodfield, 87–118. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Formentelli, Maicol, and John Hajek. 2016. “Address Practices in Academic Interactions in a Pluricentric Language.” Pragmatics 26 (4): 631–652. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gass, Susan, and Alison Mackey. 2000. Stimulated Recall Methodology in Second Language Research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giannoni, Davide Simone. 2014. “A Comparison of British and Italian Customer-complaint Forms.” English for Specific Purposes 34: 48–57. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hassall, Tim. 2001. “Modifying Requests in a Second Language.” International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 39: 259–283. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. “Pragmatic Performance: What Are Learners Thinking?” In Investigating Pragmatics in Foreign Language Learning, Teaching and Testing, ed. by Eva Alcón-Soler, and Alicia Martínez-Flor, 72–93. Bristol: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hendriks, Berna. 2008. “Dutch English Requests: A Study of Request Performance by Dutch Learners of English.” In Developing Contrastive Pragmatics. Interlanguage and Cross-Cultural Perspectives, ed. by Martin Putz, and JoAnn Neff-van Aertselaer, 335–354. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herring, Susan, Dieter Stein, and Tuija Virtanen. 2013. Pragmatics of Computer Mediated Communication. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
House, Juliane, and Gabriel Kasper. 1981. “Politeness Markers in English and German”. In Conversational Routine. Explorations in Standardized Communication Situations and Pre-patterned Speech, ed. by Florian Coulmas, 157–185. New York: Mouton Publishers. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keys, Carolyn W. 2000. “Investigating the Thinking Processes of Eighth Grade Writers during the Composition of a Scientific Laboratory Report.” Journal of Research in Science Teaching 37 (7): 676–690. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kozlova, Iryna. 2004. “Can You Complain? Cross-cultural Comparison of Indirect Complaints in Russian and American English.” Prospect 19 (1): 84–105.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liu, Jianda, and Wei Ren. 2016. “Apologies in Emails: Interactions between Chinese EFL Leaners and Their Foreign Peers.” In Email Discourse among Chinese Using English as a Lingua Franca, ed. by Yuan-shan Chen, Der-Hwa Rau, and Gerald Rau, 205–228. Singapore: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Márquez-Reiter, Rosina. 2005. “Complaint Calls to a Caregiver Service Company: The Case of Desahogo.” Intercultural Pragmatics 2 (4): 481–514.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Merrison, Andrew John, Jack Wilson, Bethan Davies, and Michael Haugh. 2012. “Getting Stuff Done: Comparing E-mail Requests from Students in Higher Education in Britain and Australia.” Journal of Pragmatics 44: 1077–1098. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nguyen, Thi Thuy Minh. 2008. “Modifying L2 Criticisms: How Learners Do It?” Journal of Pragmatics 40 (4): 768–791. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nguyen, Thi Thuy Minh, and Ardi Marwan. 2018. “Aptis General Writing Test Task 4: An Analysis of Test-takers’ Pragmatic Performance and Cognitive Processing.” Technical report. London: British Council.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nguyen, Thi Thuy Minh, and Gia Anh Le Ho. 2013. “Requests and Politeness in Vietnamese as a Native Language”. Pragmatics 23 (4): 685–714. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Olshtain, Elite, and Liora Weinbach. 1993. “Interlanguage Features of the Speech Act of Complaining.” In Interlanguage Pragmatics, ed. by Gabriele Kasper, and Shoshana Blum-Kulka, 108–122. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Sullivan, Barry, and Jamie Dunlea. 2015. Aptis General Technical Manual Version 1.0. London: British Council.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Orthaber, Sara, and Rosina Márquez-Reiter. 2011. "‘Talk to the hand”. Complaints to a public transport company". Journal of Pragmatics 43: 3860-3876. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rau, Der-Hwa, and Gerald Rau. 2016. “Negotiating Personal Relationship through Email Terms of Address.” In Email Discourse among Chinese Using English as a Lingua Franca, ed. by Yuan-shan Chen, Der-Hwa Rau and Gerald Rau, 11–36. Singapore: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ren, Wei. 2014. “A Longitudinal Investigation into L2 Learners’ Cognitive Processes during Study Abroad.” Applied Linguistics 35 (5): 575–594. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sophana, Srichampa. 2004. “Politeness Strategies in Hanoi Vietnamese Speech”. Mon-Khmer Studies 34: 137–157.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trosborg, Anna. 1995. Interlanguage Pragmatics: Requests, Complaints, and Apologies. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. “Complaints Online: The Case of TripAdvisor.” Journal of Pragmatics 43: 1707–1717. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vo, Tram. 2018. “An Interlanguage Pragmatic View: The Influence of Vietnamese Native Language and Culture on Their L2 Production and Comprehension.” Master’s Thesis. University of San Francisco.
Weber, Robert Phillip. 1990. Sage University Paper Series on Quantitative Applications in Social Sciences, No. 07–049. Basic Content Analysis (2nd ed.). Sage Publications, Inc.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Woodfield, Helen. 2008. “Problematising Discourse Completion Tasks: Voices from Verbal Report.” Evaluation and Research in Education 21 (1): 43–69. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. “What Lies Beneath? Verbal Report in Interlanguage Requests in English”. Multilingua 29: 1–27. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yuan, Zhou-min, and Runhan Zhang. 2018. “Investigating Longitudinal Pragmatic Development of Complaints Made by Chinese EFL Learners.” Applied Linguistics Review 9 (1): 63–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Le, Huu Loc
2024. Complaining as a face-threatening act: A look into AI complaints. Proceedings of the AsiaCALL International Conference 6 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Maíz-Arévalo, Carmen & María-del-Carmen Méndez-García
2023. “I would like to complain”: A study of the moves and strategies employed by Spanish EFL learners in formal complaint e-mails. Intercultural Pragmatics 20:2 ► pp. 161 ff. DOI logo
Morales Ruiz, Jenny
2023. Los reclamos por correo electrónico: efectos de la instrucción pragmática con enfoque por tareas en el español L2 Emails of complaints: the effects of task-based pragmatic instruction in L2 Spanish. Journal of Spanish Language Teaching 10:1 ► pp. 14 ff. DOI logo
Nguyen, Thi Thuy Minh & Thi Thanh Thuy Pham
2023. Skill acquisition based approach to teaching L2 pragmatics. In L2 Pragmatics in Action [Language Learning & Language Teaching, 58], ► pp. 243 ff. DOI logo
Ren, Wei
2022. Second Language Pragmatics, DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 29 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue