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3 - Constructing a ‘Mission Statement’: A Multimodal Perspective on Believable Identity Construction in a Job Interview
- from Part I - Transitions to a Profession
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- By Ewa Kuśmierczyk-O'Connor, PhD in Applied Linguistics from Victoria University, New Zealand
- Edited by Jo Angouri, University of Warwick, Meredith Marra, Victoria University of Wellington, Janet Holmes, Victoria University of Wellington
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- Book:
- Negotiating Boundaries at Work
- Published by:
- Edinburgh University Press
- Published online:
- 20 December 2017
- Print publication:
- 18 May 2017, pp 50-65
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
The job interview forms an integral part of workplace discourse, and is a crucial stage in an individual's transition into new employment. As a gatekeeping encounter, it operates within the discursive boundaries of existing workplace ideologies and is a site of professional and social identity construction. Research on job interviews has shown that constructing a ‘believable identity’ is a key element in promoting positive outcomes (Kerekes 2006; Roberts and Campbell 2006). In order to achieve this, prospective employees are expected to demonstrate situational competency characterised by their ability to combine various discourses – personal, professional and institutional (Iedema 2003; Roberts and Campbell 2006).
The gatekeeper's analysis of this competency centres on the candidates’ background presentations – their first opportunity to establish a believable identity. This process typically takes place in a face-to- face setting in which speech is only one of many communicative means available to the participants. It is thus inherently multimodal, as modes such as gesture, gaze, body orientation and written text intersect with speech in the creation of meaning. This chapter extends the existing research on gatekeeping by applying a multimodal approach that considers interaction as an ‘ensemble’ in which individuals utilise different communicative means in co-constructing meaning (Jewitt 2009) and ultimately negotiating their identities. To this end, multimodal interaction analysis (Norris 2004a) is applied to observe the different discourses in action.
The job interview: a transition gate
The transition into employment typically revolves around the evaluation of an individual's discourse expected to evoke organisation-specific values and competencies (Erickson and Shultz 1982; Roberts 2000). This requirement often takes the form of a criteria list not revealed to the applicant but embedded in the interview questions (Adelswärd 1988; Iedema 2003; Roberts 1985; Roberts and Campbell 2006). It is a conversation but, at the same time, so much more than just a conversation. It is where the candidate's identity is evaluated against an institutionally predetermined list; this identity, created in the here-and- now of the job interview, is then used as a predictor of more or less desired workplace behaviours and, ultimately, the candidate's fit with the organisation and their suitability for the job.
Teaching Second Languages for the Workplace
- Jonathan Newton, Ewa Kusmierczyk
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- Journal:
- Annual Review of Applied Linguistics / Volume 31 / March 2011
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 02 September 2011, pp. 74-92
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- Article
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Workplace culture and organization are evolving as they adapt to globalization and rapid technological development. Likewise, the nature and role of workplace language and the literacy demands of work are changing in the face of increasingly multicultural workplaces and global communication networks. Among these changes, recent research has highlighted the role that informal modes of interpersonal communication play in the functioning of the modern workplace. Successful participation in such interactions is seen as not just a question of fitting in socially, but of doing work through talk. Ethnographic research in the workplace has stressed the importance of understanding language by viewing it within its social setting and understanding the interactional norms of particular communities of practice. Research into language programs for the workplace reflects this shift in emphasis. In contrast to research in the field of language for specific purposes on the specialized vocabulary and formal registers of particular professions, a growing body of research focuses on teaching and learning the language of routine workplace interactions. This article reviews current research into the nature of workplace language, noting in particular the contributions from ethnographic and language socialization research. It then discusses research into four aspects of the content of language programs for the workplace: employability skills, interpersonal communication, intercultural and critical language awareness, and teaching focused on the employment interview.