The study explores the politeness strategies employed by Saudi female EFL students at King Khalid University in writing request emails to faculty members. Using coding schemes based on Elmianvari and Kheirabadi (2013) and Biesenbach-Lucas (2007), the analysis reveals that most student requests were polite, formal, and either semi-direct or indirect. Students often used long sentences and various politeness strategies, such as "please" and other lexical and syntactic modifiers, to mitigate any perceived imposition on the addressee's negative face. This behavior reflects the cultural emphasis on respect and formality in Saudi communication, especially when addressing individuals of higher status.
The findings indicate that Saudi cultural norms significantly influence the students' approach to making requests in English, showing evidence of L1 pragmatic knowledge transfer to the L2 context. Directness, degree of imposition, and formality levels were carefully modulated, with students favoring conventionally indirect strategies when addressing instructors. The study concludes that while students’ politeness strategies align with Saudi cultural expectations, EFL learners must develop greater awareness of cross-cultural differences in pragmatics to avoid miscommunication. The paper suggests that pragmatic training in EFL courses could further support students' ability to navigate intercultural communication in academic contexts.