Unveiling the Academic Job Rejection Strategies in an English as an International Language Context

Many researchers have explored the speech act of refusals across various genres, languages, and contexts. However, little is known about how refusals are conveyed in academic job applications by Asia-Pacific and European institutions. To address this gap, the current cross-cultural study analyzed a corpus of naturally occurring academic job rejection emails from different universities. Using Beebe et al.’s (۱۹۹۰) taxonomy of refusals, a total of ۸۵ rejection letters was collected and examined. The results revealed that while both Asia-Pacific and European universities employed similar refusal strategies, the frequency differed significantly: European universities used ۲۱۹ refusal strategies, compared to only ۶۰ by Asia-Pacific institutions. Both regions primarily relied on “indirect” refusal strategies and “adjuncts” to protect the applicant’s face. Interestingly, “direct” refusal strategies, which are more face-threatening, were notably more common in European universities’ responses. The study concludes with insights and recommendations for making the academic job application process more considerate for both applicants and institutions.

کلیدواژه ها:

Academic Job Application ، English as an International language ، Refusal Strategies ، Socio-Pragmatic Norms ، speech act