Cover not available

Article published In: Pragmatics
Vol. 36:2 (2026) ► pp.276–305

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

Dissenting emails in academia

The analysis of the micro- and macrostructure of Chinese university students’ emails to their lecturer in Spanish

ORCiD logo with link | Queen Mary University of London
ORCiD logo with link | Universidad Antonio de Nebrija
Published online: 13 February 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.22074.rod
Abstract
This research studies a group of Chinese university students of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) and observes the macro- and microstructure of their emails and their pragmatic competence. In order to study the features and context adequacy of their communication, a corpus of 135 emails written by fourth-year students was analysed to identify the uses and preferences concerning subject lines and opening and closing moves, and to investigate the uses and functions of strategies related to disagreement in their communication to a faculty member. Our results have reflected the obstacles that the vast majority of students manifest in the use of Spanish when it comes to adequately achieving their communicative purpose in a given context. Data also proved that the emails analysed were inappropriate due to insufficient mitigation, lack of acknowledgement of the imposition involved and lack of status-congruent language.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Writing emails to a faculty member
    • 2.2The expression of disagreement in different cultures
  • 3.Method
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Email’s structure and adequacy to the context
    • 4.2Use of language: Dissenting strategies used by the students
  • 5.Discussion and conclusions
  • Note
  • References
References (44)
References
Barros-García, Maria Jesus, and Marina Terkourafi. 2014. “First-Order Politeness in Rapprochement and Distancing Cultures: Understandings and Uses of Politeness by Spanish Native Speakers from Spain and Spanish Non-Native Speakers from the U.S.” Pragmatics 24 (1): 1–34.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Betti, Silvia. 2013. “‘Hola profe!’ ¿Son corteses los jóvenes en el correo electrónico? Estudio de mensajes virtuales españoles e italianos (enseñanza y aprendizaje de la pragmática de una lengua extranjera) [‘Hello teacher!’ Are young people polite in email? A study of Spanish and Italian virtual messages (teaching and learning the pragmatics of a foreign language)].” RESLA 261: 67–89.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bou-Franch, Patricia. 2011. “Openings and Closings in Spanish Email Conversations.” Fuel and Energy Abstracts 431: 1772–85.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brenes-Peña, Ester. 2011. Actos de habla disentivos. Identificación y análisis. Sevilla: Ediciones Alfar S.A.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen C. Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Burgess, Anthony, Thomas Jackson, and Janet Edwards. 2005. “Email Training Significantly Reduces Email Defects.” International Journal of Information Management 251: 71–83. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Casillas-Martín, Sonia, Marcos Cabezas-González, and Ana García-Valcárcel-Muñoz-Repiso. 2021. “Influencia del uso de WhatsApp y correo electrónico en la competencia digital en el área de comunicación [Influence of the Use of WhatsApp and Email on Digital Competence in the Field of Communication].” Estudios Sobre Educación, 411: 227–249. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Codina-Espurz, Victòria, and Patricia Salazar-Campillo. 2019. “Openings and Closings in Emails by CLIL Students: A Pedagogical Proposal.” English Language Teaching 12 (2): 57–67. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crystal, David. 2006. Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 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’ Email Requests to Faculty.” Journal of Pragmatics 43 (13): 3193–215. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. “Teaching Email Politeness in the EFL/ESL Classroom.” ELT Journal 69 (4): 415–424. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fernández-García, Francisco, and María Dolores Aguayo-Cruz. 2019. “Variación cultural y situacional en la gestión del desacuerdo [Cultural and Situational Variation in Disagreement Management].” Pragmalingüística 271: 10–31. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hallajian, Ali, and Maya Khemlani David. 2014. “‘Hello and Good Day to You Dear Dr…’ Greetings and Closings in Supervisors–Supervisees Email Exchanges.” Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 1181: 85–93. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haverkate, Henk. 1994. La cortesía verbal. Estudio pragmalingüístico. Madrid: Gredos.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hofstede, Geert. 1980. Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. Beverly Hills: SAGE.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huang, Li-Jung. 2016. “Discourse Organization and Features of Email Writing Among EFL Students in Taiwan.” In Email Discourse Among Chinese Using English as a Lingua Franca, ed. by Yuan-shan Chen, Der-Hwa Victoria Rau, and Gerald Rau, 37–58. Singapore: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kankaanranta, Anne. 2006. “‘Hej Seppo, Could You Pls Comment on This!’: Internal Email Communication in Lingua Franca English in a Multinational Company.” Business Communication Quarterly 69 (2): 216–25. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lee, Mark. 2008. “A Short Guide to Email Etiquette at University.” [URL]
Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Wan-jing, and Yuan-shan Chen. 2016. “Politeness and Effectiveness of English Email Requests: Taiwanese Professors’ Perspectives.” In Email Discourse Among Chinese Using English as a Lingua Franca, ed. by Yuan-shan Chen, Der-Hwa Victoria Rau, and Gerald Rau, 91–113. Singapore: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Níkleva, Dimitrinka G. 2018. “Markers of Politeness and Impoliteness in Student-Teacher Interaction in the Discourse Genre of Emails.” Revista signos 511: 214–35. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Níkleva, Dimitrinka G., and Pilar Núñez-Delgado. 2013. “El correo electrónico como género discursivo: percepciones y habilidades para su composición en estudiantes universitarios [The email as a discursive genre: perceptions and skills for its composition among university students].” Resla 261: 385–407.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pomerantz, Anita. 1984. “Agreeing and Disagreeing with Assessments: Some Features of Preferred/Dispreferred Turn Shapes.” In Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis, ed. by Maxwell Atkinson, 57–101. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rau, Der-Hwa Victoria, 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 Victoria Rau, and Gerald Rau, 11–36. Singapore: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Robles-Garrote, Pilar. 2020. “Conciencia pragmática y afinidad lingüística: análisis de cortesía verbal en correos electrónicos de estudiantes universitarios españoles e italianos [Pragmatic Awareness and Linguistic Affinity: Analysis of Verbal Politeness in Emails from Spanish and Italian University Students].” RILCE 36 (2): 724–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roche, Marc. 2020. Email Writing: Advanced ©. How to Write Emails Professionally. Advanced Business Etiquette & Secret Tactics for Writing at Work. Amazon Digital Services LLC.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rodríguez-Velasco, David. 2022. “‘Dear Dr John Smith. I Refuse to Obey This Mark. That’s Mean. So, Can You Give Me a Higher Mark?’ An Analysis of Chinese EFL Learners’ Pragmatic Competence in Email Communication to a Faculty Member.” International Review of Pragmatics 14 (2): 1–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rodríguez-Velasco, David, and María Cecilia Ainciburu. 2020. “Don’t You Like Me? Am I Ugly? Or Don’t I Speak Well?’ Analysis of Disagreement and Emotional Exhibition in the Emails of Chinese University Students of Spanish.” Revista de Lingüística Teórica y Aplicada 58 (1): 37–63. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rodríguez-Velasco, David, and Katia Liu Xiaoxu. 2019. Nebrija-WOCAE (Written and Oral Chinese Academic Emails) Corpus. Retrieved from TalkBank. [URL]
Rodríguez-Velasco, David, Katia Liu Xiaoxu, and María Cecilia Ainciburu. 2021. “‘You Would Not Want to Be the Murderer of Our Dreams and Options, Right?’ An Analysis of the Communication Between University Students and Their Professors on the Web 2.0.” International Review of Pragmatics, 13 (2), 265–286. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Salazar-Campillo, Patricia. 2018. “Student-Initiated Email Communication: An Analysis of Openings and Closings by Spanish EFL Learners.” Sintagma 301: 81–93. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sappleton, Natalie, and Fernando Lourenço. 2016. “Email Subject Lines and Response Rates to Invitations to Participate in a Web Survey and a Face-to-Face Interview: The Sound of Silence.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 19 (5): 611–22. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taylor, Shirley. 2010. E-Mail Etiquette. Marshall Cavendish.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomas, Jenny. 1983. “Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Failure.” Applied Linguistics 4 (2): 91–112. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Waldvogel, Joan. 2007. “Greetings and Closings in Workplace Email.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12 (2): 456–77. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wu, Xuehua. 2006. “A Study of Strategy Use in Showing Agreement and Disagreement to Others’ Opinions.” CELEA Journal 29 (5): 55–65.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xu, Yanling, Yanrong Chang, and Zhan Long. 2021. “Similarities of Expressing Disagreement by Chinese and American College Students.” 2nd International Conference on Language, Communication and Culture Studies (ICLCCS 2021). Atlantis Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yan, Chu. 2016. “A Contrastive Pragmatic Study of Politeness Strategies in Disagreement Between Native Speakers of English and Chinese EFL Learners.” Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics 39 (2): 231–49. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yang, Robin Ruowei. 2009. “Other-Repair in Chinese Conversation: A Case of Web-Based Academic Discussion.” Intercultural Pragmatics 6 (3): 315–43. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yao, Jun, Jie Song and Yanan Sheng. 2021. “Performance of Face-Threatening Speech Acts in Chinese and Japanese BELF Emails.” Journal of Pragmatics 1781: 287–300. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yeung, Lorrita Ngor-To. 2000. “The Question of Chinese Indirectness: A Comparison of Chinese and English Participative Decision-Making Discourse.” Multilingua 19 (3): 221–64. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhao, Lishuang. 2021. “Estudio de la atenuación en conversaciones coloquiales chinas [Study of attenuation in Chinese colloquial conversations].” PhD dissertation. Universitat Politècnica de València.
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue