Business students’ email requests: pragmatic production and perception of power and social distance

Abstract

This study investigates Business and Administration students’ pragmatic production and perception of high-imposition email requests. Thirty L1 Spanish students with a high proficiency level in English wrote four requestive emails by means of Discourse Completion Tasks (DCTs). These tasks included two distinct social variables: more power and social distance (+P, +D) in emails addressed to the manager, and less power and social distance (-P, -D) in emails addressed to a colleague. Results show that students opted for conventionally indirect strategies regardless of power and social distance, and that only closings partly contributed to soften the degree of imposition. As for pragmatic perception, the students who were interviewed reported they were aware of the difference in power and social distance of the addressees; however, this awareness did not show in the strategies used in their requests.