According to expectation violation theory, job applicants can be upgraded or downgraded during an interview when their accent does not match employers' speech expectations. Focusing on the employment of second language French job candidates in Québec, this study explored this issue dynamically in terms of how expectations may impact the trajectory…

The study investigates whether and how mock interviews, an instructional component of business Chinese courses, prepare students for real interviews. The study included 11 American undergraduate students who participated in a 10-week summer study abroad program in China. Participants underwent two rounds of mock interviews with their instructors…

This study investigates Taiwanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' use of strategies in developing job interview skills in English. The participants were 40 EFL learners majoring in English at a private university in Taiwan. The study was part of a four-week job interview training program, during which they prepared for a mock…

This article provides critical student perspectives on a set of instructor-created materials in which students ultimately delivered a spoken anecdote in a class presentation. The research was conducted qualitatively through the lens of narrative inquiry. Data were gathered from six participants, all undergraduate English majors at a Japanese…

Communication strategies (CS) have been generally used to overcome oral communication problems in delivering the intended messages. While studies on CS mostly involved simulated communication contexts, the current study deviates from the past studies on CS by identifying the types of CS employed by candidates of real job interviews and examining…

In the 21st century, the transformation of Chinese education going to market has reinforced alongside the deepening marketization process in China since the 1970s. To date, the Chinese have widely accepted English education's marketization. Many Chinese parents register for English classes in private training institutes for their children having a…

South Korean job seekers face pressure to produce high scores on standardized English tests, which leads to the prominence of test-oriented pedagogy. Though recent scholarship illustrates how materials reflect the values of society and how these are negotiated in classrooms it has mainly analyzed preexisting published books, leaving the potential…

Assessing the skills of the students who take part in a Virtual Exchange (VE) project is a challenging and complicated task, especially if it aims to engage both the students and VE co-organisers in the feedback and evaluation process. The objective of this chapter is to outline the pedagogical design of a business communication skills course and…

The Ministry for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada includes employment-related language training in its current initiatives. This article aims to contribute to the topic of teaching soft skills for job interviews and job retention, as informed by research from the fields of business and applied linguistics, including pragmatics, as well…

This study aimed at investigating students' attitudes toward their intercultural learning experience to develop intercultural awareness in an English language classroom. The participants were a group of 31 students at tertiary level. They registered for an elective English course, the objective of which was to prepare students for job application,…

To keep the United States economically competitive in a rapidly changing world, business leaders are calling for employment candidates who can work efficiently in a globalized context with both language skills and cross-cultural dispositions critical to the economic success of the country. These language proficiency skills and cross-cultural…

With decreasing numbers of students studying German at Higher Education Institutions in the United Kingdom, there is an increasing demand for graduate Germanists. This project, designed for C1/C2 level students according to the Common European Framework of Reference for languages, prepares finalist students for a job market in which UK and German…

It has long been asserted that the English language is imperialist, however, the overwhelming effect it has on Education has long reaching consequences for people worldwide. That is to say, since English language teaching (ELT) is so fundamental for the financial and academic development of individuals on a global scale, it ought to be proposed…

In this study, similarities and differences among generic structures in 80 cover letters written by Taiwanese and Canadian college students were investigated, adopting Upton and Connor's (2001) framework. The results demonstrated that Canadian students tend to write longer letters, use a greater variety of word types and sentence structures, and…

By the end of their studies, non-native speakers of English studying at English-medium universities have had several years of exposure to English in that setting. Do non-native students, particularly those enrolled in non-language related programs, show different levels of second language (L2) speaking ability in their final semester of studies…