Forms of salutations in Polish student-to-teacher electronic mails

Abstract

The selection of this article for publication in the Jubilee Book was guided mainly by its higher than usual entertaining value and the topic relevant for many of us, closely or more distantly associated with the Academia. Additionally, it offers an interesting snapshot of the changing reality of teacher‑student relationships, which have undoubtedly evolved since the times when a large portion of the readers were students. For those who have graduated before the emergence of the present two Institutes running the English Philology studies it will hopefully provide an insightful trip into the social labyrinth of contemporary university, provoking at the same time memories of how it used to be in the times gone by. The paper is an attempt to describe the changing socio‑cultural reality as manifested through language, on the basis of student‑teacher e‑mail exchanges. With the emergence of electronic correspondence the major form of out‑of‑class contact between the students and the teachers has quite significantly shifted from face‑to‑face encounters during office hours to relatively short but also quite frequent e‑mail exchanges. At the same time, the language used by the students provides an intriguing illustration of their perception of the existing social relationships between teachers and students and of the role and function of the former in the context of cultural and economic changes in the first decade of the 21st century. The study is a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis of the gathered authentic data.