Exploring the role of strategy instruction on learners’ ability to write authentic email requests to faculty

• Autores: Ester Usó Juan
• Localización: Language teaching research, ISSN 1362-1688, Vol. 26, Nº. 2, 2022 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Teaching second language pragmatics in the current era of globalization), págs. 213-237
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Dialnet Métricas: 4 Citas
• Resumen

  • This study used a pre-test post-test research design to investigate the role of explicit strategy instruction on Spanish English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ ability to write authentic email requests to faculty. Drawing on Taguchi’s (2018) classification of pragmatics learning strategies, the instructional intervention followed a strategy-based approach to help learners understand the form–function–context mapping of email requests in the academic context. A total of 110 naturally occurring email requests for action addressed to three faculty members were collected at two different times: as a pre-test (i.e. before engaging learners in the instructional period), and as a post-test (i.e. after learners’ participation in the treatment sessions). Learners’ email messages were analysed considering both their appropriateness of use as well the frequency of utilization of different structural (i.e. subject line, openings and closings) and content components (i.e. request strategies and internal request modifiers). Results showed that strategy instruction helped learners write more appropriate email requests after the instructional period. The findings suggest that arming learners with a variety of strategic tools may lead to pragmatic development in actual language use.