This edited volume makes a valuable contribution to the burgeoning research field of English as a lingua franca. In a pioneering step, the collection is exclusively devoted to the English email discourse of Chinese speakers. The studies address innovative topics related to various contexts and relationships, using several different approaches and theories, which taken together shed light on how English serves as a lingua franca in multiple types of global written communication. The research topics presented are organized into four thematic sections, including emails from students to professors, emails from students to the international academic community, emails from peer to peer, and emails at the workplace.

Enriches readers' understanding of how Chinese use English as a lingua franca

Negotiating Personal Relationship through Email Terms of Address.- Discourse Organization and Features of Email Writing among EFL Students in Taiwan.- Do Chinese Students Waffle in Their Apologies?: An Exploration into EFL Learners' Emails.- Politeness and Effectiveness of English Email Requests: Taiwanese Professors' Perspectives.- Emailing Requests to International Researchers: The Construction of Identity by Chinese EFL Graduate Students.- Intercultural Taoci Email: New Wine in an Old Bottle.- Strategies Used in Chinese University Students' ELF Emails to Remedy or Prevent Problems in Understanding.- Openings and Closings in Intercultural Email Communication: A Case Study of Taiwanese, Japanese, and Italian Students.- Apologies in Emails: Interactions between Chinese EFL Learners and Their Foreign Peers.- Status-Congruence in Request E-mail Discourse of Professional Secretaries in a University of Taiwan.- A Study on SymbolicCompetence and Face in ELF Email Communication.- Top Secret: Hacking and Fraud Detection in Business Emails of a Taiwanese Company.