A study by Lee and Lim (2017) analyzed emails sent by Korean students to their instructors and found that students who had received training in pragmatic competence were more successful in communicating their needs and concerns in their emails. The study also found that students who had not received such training tended to write emails that were too direct, informal, or impolite, which could be perceived as disrespectful or unprofessional by instructors.For example, Lu (2017) found that Chinese students tended to use overly formal language in their emails, which can be perceived as impolite or insincere by native English-speaking instructors. Similarly, Park (2017) found that Korean students tended to use overly deferential language, which can be seen as lacking confidence or assertiveness. Other studies have focused on specific aspects of pragmatic competence in emails to instructors. For example, Sert (2018) examined how Turkish students used politeness strategies in their emails to instructors. The study found that students used various forms of politeness, such as indirectness and hedging, to show respect and deference to instructors. However, some students overused politeness strategies, which can make their emails sound insincere or ambiguous.Research has also investigated how instructors perceive students’ emails in terms of pragmatic competence. For example, Kuo and Anderson (2010) asked instructors to rate the politeness and appropriateness of emails written by Taiwanese students. The study found that instructors rated emails that used more direct language as more polite and appropriate. This suggests that students may need to balance their use of politeness strategies with directness and clarity.
Al-Issa and Al-Mekhlafi (2017) investigated the pragmatic competence of Yemeni EFL learners in requesting strategies. The study found that the learners’ use of request strategies was influenced by their L1 culture, which prioritizes indirectness and politeness. The authors suggest that EFL learners need explicit instruction and practice in the target language culture’s communication styles to develop pragmatic competence. Similarly Huang (2016) investigated the pragmatic competence of Chinese EFL learners in email communication. The study analyzed the learners’ email messages using the discourse analysis framework and found that the learners had difficulty in employing appropriate language functions, such as requests, apologies, and suggestions, in email communication. The study suggested that EFL instructors should focus on teaching language functions and providing authentic email writing tasks to improve learners’ pragmatic competence.