„I address you in the question of…”, i.e. how the Eastern Polish people utilize language as presented through the category of the application form
The article presents the results of the analysis of 51 high grades in learning applications written by foreign Polish descendant students and foreign students of The Polish Language and Culture Centre for Polish People from Abroad and Foreigners at the UMCS in Lublin. These are students who attend the so-called „zero year,” during which they prepare to take up studies in Poland, among them students from Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Although all these people have declared that they have Polish roots, the Polish language is not their first language or basic communication tool and they only use it in limited circumstances, for example with their chosen family members, at school or in church.
As the realision of the genre pattern is very complex and cannot be encompassed within the frames of one article, the author focused on the structural aspect of the gathered applications. Therefore, the presented analysis constitutes the first stage in achieving the goal of research analysis, which is defining of the level of pragmatic competence of the application senders.