The impact of self-access web-based instruction on EFL learners' pragmatic awareness of email requests to faculty

Research has shown that EFL university students have difficulties identifying what is appropriate in email requests to faculty. As a response to this need to develop students' awareness of how to write status-congruent request emails in English, a small body of research has started to investigate the effects of pedagogical interventions on email request pragmatics, finding positive results for in-class instruction. The present study intends to contribute to this line of research by investigating the extent to which students' pragmatic awareness may improve as a result of instruction delivered through a self-access web-based module. In addition, the study investigates whether instruction helps students' appropriateness perceptions become more aligned with those of university lecturers. Participants were 70 EFL first-year students at a public university in Spain. Their development of pragmatic awareness was measured through a perception task that included three email requests that contained pragmatic infelicities and aggravators. Students rated email appropriateness on a four-point Likert scale and wrote justifications of such ratings. Our data showed that their ratings of appropriateness were significantly different from the pre- to the post-test, and that the post-test ratings were more aligned to those of university lecturers in the case of higher imposition requests. In addition, after instruction participants were able to identify more pragmatic infelicities, and their written answers showed a higher awareness of pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic factors. The present study thus supports the beneficial effects of pragmatic instruction that is delivered through a self-access web-based module included within an English university course. • The study explores the effects of self-access web-based instruction on pragmatic awareness. • Self-acesss instruction raised EFL students' awareness of email requests to faculty. • Students' perceptions of appropriateness grew more similar to those of lecturers. • The type of email request and level of imposition affected changes in perceptions. • Students learned to identify complex sociopragmatic issues with no teacher guidance.