Making requests to professors in emails: An examination of request modifications performed by Indonesian students in Japan

This paper examines email requests sent by Indonesian students to Japanese university professors using English as their lingua franca. It particularly analyzes how students modify their email requests using internal and external modifications as a way to soften the force of the imposed requests. Data were gathered from a total of 56 authentic emails and analyzed using a framework contrived by Economidou-Kogetsidis (2011), a modified Cross-Cultural of Speech Act Realization Patterns (CCSARP) coding scheme initially developed by Blum-Kulka, House & Kasper (1989). The result showed that while Indonesian students barely use the internal modifications to soften the imposition of their written requests, they tend to rely more on the use of external modifications using supporting moves. This strategy can indirectly modify the illocutionary force of the request as the students ensure that they provide their professors with enough background information and justify the reason behind their request through grounder moves. This present study also shows a shift in students' communication style where brevity is highly preferable. © 2020 JLLS and the Authors - Published by JLLS.

E-postalarda profesörlere talepte bulunma: Japonya'daki Endonezyalı öğrenciler tarafından gerçekleştirilen talep değişikliklerinin incelenmesi

Bu makale, Endonezyalı öğrenciler tarafından, ortak dil olarak İngilizceyi kullanan Japon üniversite profesörlerine gönderilen e-posta taleplerini incelemektedir. Özellikle, empoze edilen taleplerin gücünü yumuşatmak için iç ve dış değişiklikleri kullanarak öğrencilerin e-posta taleplerini nasıl değiştirdiklerini analiz eder. Veriler, toplam 56 gerçek e-postadan toplandı. Sonuç, Endonezyalı öğrencilerin yazılı taleplerinin dayatmasını yumuşatmak için dahili değişiklikleri zar zor kullanırken, destekleyici hareketleri kullanarak harici değişikliklerin kullanımına daha fazla güvenme eğiliminde olduklarını gösterdi. Bu strateji, öğrenciler profesörlerine yeterli arka plan bilgisi sağladıklarından ve gerekçeli hareketler yoluyla taleplerinin arkasındaki sebebi doğruladıklarından, talebin sözsüz gücünü dolaylı olarak değiştirebilir. Bu çalışma aynı zamanda öğrencilerin iletişim tarzlarında kısalığın yüksek oranda tercih edildiğini göstermektedir.

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