Korean EFL Learners' Interlanguage Pragmatics Realized in Letters of Request

The main purpose of the present paper is to describe the uses (or misuses) of pragmatic language elements by Korean EFL learners. It chose request letters in e-mail messages as a target construct to investigate the learners' language actions in real life situations. The qualitative analysis of the second language patterns used to perform request speech acts revealed that the Korean EFL learners in the present study were not competent in realizing the communication goal of request. This is due to, first of all, their lack of proper linguistic tools and resources, and second, knowledge of situation proper usage of the language tools. The present paper argues that there should be more focus on the learners' pragmatic aspect in written communications. The unbalanced emphasis of pragmatic competence on spoken communication should spare their attention to the written mode, which has a significant meaning for the learners in EFL situations to accomplish their practical and professional goals.