Analyzing Generational Patterns of Change in EFL Learners’ Informative Emails: An Apparent Time Study

Apparent time research concerns comparing speakers of different ages in a single-speech community at a single time (Meyerhoff, 2012). This study was an apparent time research in which the informative emails of EFL learners of different ages at the Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) were compared. The participants were 49 undergraduate students of Engineering in the 18–23 age range and 45 MA students of TEFL at the e-learning center of the IUST who ranged in age from 29 to 45. The undergraduate students were passing an EGAP course, while the MA students were offered the ESP course. They were both asked to email their instructor the tasks they performed during the term. The results showed that younger students used more informal speech patterns than the older ones while informing their instructor of the assignments they did. In particular, B.Sc. students’ emails were significantly different in terms of greeting, word choices, pronouns, and style of writing from those of MA students

کلیدواژه ها:

apparent time ، real time ، language change ، speech community ، informative emails