Email as a mode of communication among Tunisian postgraduate students
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Abstract
Abstract
Emails have great potential in facilitating academic communication. However, writing effective academic emails depends on many factors including students' knowledge, experiences and perceptions about emails. According to Brown and Levinson (1987), people use certain politeness strategies to enhance face between themselves and their interlocutors. Yet, the underlying processes of email communication may be poorly understood, especially as far as politeness is concerned. This study seeks to examine the perceptions, practices and attitudes of 38 postgraduateTunisian students towards email communication through a questionnaire. The aim is to reveal whether the sociolinguistic and pragmatic dynamics of writing emails in English are adequately understood by Tunisian postgraduate students. The questionnaire comprises four parts which include email use, participants' attitudes towards emails, email practices and social factors. Each section includes closed and open-ended questions. The findings show that the informants have a positive attitude towards the use of emails in their academic life. However, their perceptions concerning politeness and their comment on the effect of social factors show a relative variability. A possible avenue for pedagogical intervention with regard to the instruction of pragmatics in general and politeness routines in particular in email communication is presented.
Keywords: Emails, politeness, pragmatic competence, social factors.
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