Native Speaker and Non-Native Speaker Communication During Job Interviews

Abstract This study explored an alternative methodology for analyzing communication interactions, to determine whether it could be applied to interventions designed to improve the communication competence of university graduates who are non-native speakers of English (NNSE). Qualitative research methods examined the communication of both interlocutors in job interviews to determine if there was a relationship between performance and perceptual judgements of accent, intelligibility, comprehensibility and employability. Detailed conversational analysis allowed for in-depth consideration of typical conversation breakdown and repair strategies used by native speakers of English (NSE) and NNSE. The results indicated that the majority of participant errors were accent differences and minor grammatical errors. The type and quantity of repair strategies utilized in response to the errors varied depending on communication and interactional competence. We predicted that there would be a relationship between participant's performance and interlocutor's perceptions. This proved to be the case in the NSE-NNSE interactions, but not in the NSE-NSE interview. This methodology offers a promising framework which could be utilized in future investigations into communication skills of NNSE and their interlocutors. Analyzing data from a job interview provided preliminary information about the context contingent aspects of communication that are problematic for graduates who are NNSE.