Politeness in university student – teacher email communication: a Croatian teachers' perspective

Abstract

Aim. The aim of the article is to get an initial insight into how Croatian university teachers perceive their students’ e-mails in terms of politeness.

Methodology. The given study incorporates a small-scale qualitative and quantitative analysis of data collected via a meticulously designed questionnaire, administered to a group of Croatian university teachers focused on their perception of their students’ emails.

Results. The study found that although Croatian teachers express general satisfaction with students' etiquette, they note problems that indicate insufficient development of students' communicative competence. This is due to students' lack of knowledge of politeness strategies and their lack of awareness of social distance and power distance. Thus, the author emphasizes the need for teaching electronic etiquette in the Croatian higher education system and proposes to introduce a special course on electronic communication etiquette into educational programs.

Research implications. Although the study is based on a rather limited amount of material, it provides an initial understanding of the problems that arise in the e-mail correspondence of students and teachers at Croatian universities and motivates for further research, justifying the introduction of comprehensive education in the field of netiquette at the university level. The importance of understanding the meaning of polite communication and mastering politeness strategies for the development of socio-cultural communicative competence, especially in the academic context, is emphasized, as well as the need for further research into the texts of Croatian students' e-mails in order to identify problems and formulate appropriate recommendations for their solution.