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In:Email Pragmatics and Second Language Learners
Edited by Maria Economidou-Kogetsidis, Milica Savić and Nicola Halenko
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 328] 2021
► pp. 71–100

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Chapter 3
Long-term instructional effects on learners’ use of email request modifiers

ORCiD logo with link | Universitat Jaume I
Published online: 27 October 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.328.03uso
Abstract
This study followed a pre-test/post-test/delayed post-test design to investigate the long-term impact of metapragmatic instruction on learners’ ability to modify email requests. Twenty-five Spanish university students with an upper-intermediate proficiency level in English participated in the study. Over a two-week period, they received six hours of instruction on request modifiers by applying a form-function-context mapping framework (Taguchi 2011). Target request modifiers in written Discourse Completion Tasks (DCTs) were analysed for frequency and variety. Learners’ self-evaluations of email appropriateness were also used to determine their degree of confidence when producing request modifiers. The within-group comparisons revealed that learners made a significant progress in their use of request modifiers and confidence level immediately after instruction and two months later. These comparisons, however, also indicated that some types of request modifiers were more amenable to instruction than others.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Instructional targets
    • 3.3Instructional procedure
      • 3.3.1Session 1: Researching and Reflecting
      • 3.3.2Session 2: Receiving and Reasoning
      • 3.3.3Session 3: Rehearsing and Revising
    • 3.4Data collection procedure
    • 3.5Data analysis and statistical procedure
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Learners’ frequency of request modifiers
    • 4.2Learners’ variety of request modifiers
    • 4.3Learners’ confidence in judging the appropriateness of email request modifiers
  • 5.Conclusions, limitations and pedagogical implications
  • References
  • Appendix
References (46)
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2024. Multilingual cyberpragmatics in instructional settings. Exploring gender and age effects in Catalan, Spanish and English email requests. International Journal of Multilingualism 21:3 ► pp. 1494 ff. DOI logo
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2023. Metadiscourse Learning Trajectories in Multilingual Learners: A Focus on Attitude Markers and Hedges. In New Trends on Metadiscourse, ► pp. 105 ff. DOI logo
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2023. L2 pragmatics in action. In L2 Pragmatics in Action [Language Learning & Language Teaching, 58], ► pp. 3 ff. DOI logo
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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

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