Politeness in Business Communication: Investigating English Modal Sequences in Chinese Learners’ Letter Writing

Abstract

Politeness has been a source of inspiration for research in pragmatics and inter- and intra-cultural communication. However, the existing literature focusses more on how politeness is realized in the context of first language use. Few studies have investigated the issue related to the use of English by second language learners from varying subcultures within the same cultural tradition. The present study examines how Hong Kong and Shanghai tertiary-level learners of English convey politeness in their business letter writing, as reflected in the use of modal sequences. Three hundred business letters were collected from students in Hong Kong and another 300 from students in Shanghai. Majoring in various disciplines, these students were all in their final year of study, and their English proficiency level was generally scored at B2, as compared with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Following a mixed-methods approach, the study tracked a rather complex distribution of politeness realizations by different modal sequences. The findings were that Hong Kong ESL learners appeared to be more strategic users of modal sequences as evidenced by a variety of usage examples from the two purpose-built learner corpora, which were developed to monitor and compare English learners’ business writing at the tertiary level. Another finding was that epistemic modality tended to better preserve politeness in the writing.

Interpersonal Function of Joe Biden’s Victory Speech (Systemic Functional Linguistics View)

“…Without them he is nothing. As such, it mirrors previous study highlighting a strategy management of keeping distance between the speaker and the audience (Bu et al, 2020;Fernández-agüero & Chancay-cedeño, 2019;Qian & Pan, 2019). Saying it differently, the use of "we" in this speech tends to show that the speaker did not separate himself from the audience and did not put himself as the only agent of change.…”

“…The coverage deals with not only written text but also in spoken text such as speech, interview, conversation, flyers and so forth. In this respect, we as listeners and readers try to understand every single meaning of the words by carefully examining words, context, and ideology lie behind the text and linking them to each other (Gusthini, Sobarna, & Amalia, 2018;Kai, 2008;Poulimenou, Stamou, Papavlasopoulos, & Poulos, 2016;Qian & Pan, 2019). In other words, discourse covers the use of language in its writers and speakers form.…”

An Investigation into Undergraduate Students’ Readiness for Intercultural Written Communication in a Foreign Language

“…The Japanese researcher Nixon (2018) observes that the skill of understanding business letters is considered more passive than productive due to the lack of direct contact with business partners overseas. The Chinese researchers Qian and Pan (2019) clarify difficulties in writing business letters by referring to their formal style and stress a polite tone in intercultural written communication. Akbari (2017) from Australia discusses linguistic means for expressing her students' viewpoints when writing business letters.…”

Putting Research into Practice: Beyond Textbook Email Task Design for Pre-experience Business English Learners

“…One final area of scholarship also informed the design of our materials; the studies that have been done on the business writing produced by pre-experience learners, and more specifically, how this writing is viewed by business practitioners. For the past two decades, research such as this has attempted to understand more about how students write and how this may differ from the workplace context (Connor et al, 1995; Connor et al, 1997; Bhatia, 1993; Qian and Pan, 2017; Zhu, 2012). In a recent study, for instance, Zhang (2013) looks at how student writing in Mainland China is perceived by international business people, some of whom spoke English as a first language and some of whom spoke English as an additional language.…”