Evaluative language for rapport building in virtual collaboration: an analysis of appraisal in computer-mediated interaction

The main objective of this study is to explore how students who participate in virtual intercultural exchanges use evaluative language to build rapport and encourage collaboration. Data were gathered from 211 email messages sent by 40 Spanish and American university students and were tagged following Martin and White's Appraisal model. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the lexico-grammatical tokens revealed that the participants used mostly Affect tokens in their interaction. This suggests that the students preferred expressing their own feelings and emotions rather than judging their partners' behaviour or evaluating phenomena as a strategy to construct a positive and appealing personal identity.