USE OF FAVOURABLE AND LESS FAVOURABLE TYPES OF COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES IN JOB INTERVIEWS: INTERVIEWERS’ PERSPECTIVES ON CANDIDATES

Abstract

Communication strategies (CS), commonly referred to as efforts made to overcome various oral communication problems and facilitate oral communication, are expected to occur among second language (L2) speakers. Examples of CS are code-switching and asking for clarifications.  In high-stakes communication contexts such as job interviews where English is widely used, the candidates’ use of CS can result in some perceptions among interviewers that contribute to their perspectives on the candidates’ communicative competence. Realising that positive perspectives are important for interview candidates, this qualitative study was set up to examine the types of CS employed by them and further, to investigate interviewers’ perspectives on such use of CS in terms of whether it was favourable by the latter or otherwise. The data were collected in two stages:  recorded observations of 19 candidates from one public university in Malaysia, attending real academic staff recruitment interviews, and semi-structured interviews with five interviewers involved. Based on Dörnyei and Scott’s taxonomy of CS, the data analysis revealed two important findings. First, the interviewers favoured certain types of CS which include ‘self-rephrasing’, ‘self-repair’, ‘self-repetition’ and ‘asking for clarifications’ while ‘asking for help’ and ‘asking for confirmation’ are less favoured by them.   Second, the types of CS employed should consider the context of interactions with some types (e.g. asking for repetitions) ought to be employed properly. These findings are significant as they can be used as guidelines for candidates attending similar interviews in the future.