a study of english communication problems during an...

7th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences

“ASEAN 2015: Challenges and Opportunities” (Proceedings)

Faculty of Liberal Arts, Prince of Songkla University, June 5- 6, 2015 27

A Study of English Communication Problems

During an Employment Interview*

1. Srisuda Jaemjedrio, Master of Arts’ Student, Communicative English, Ramkhamhaeng University, [email protected]

2. Em-orn Dispany, Assoc. Prof., English and Linguistics, Ramkhamhaeng University, [email protected]

3. Yaowaluck Tantanapornchai, Assoc. Prof., English and Linguistics, Ramkhamhaeng University

4. Jaralvilai Charunrochana, Assoc. Prof. Dr. M.L., English and Linguistics , Kasetsart University, [email protected]

Abstract This study aims to investigate the problems of using the English language during

an employment interview. The purposes of the study are: to investigate English used as a tool of communication during the job interview and to determine the problems frequently occurring during the job interview process related to language and communication. A total of 60 volunteer participants, including university students and various professionals, was the sample of this study

The interview was conducted by inviting the samples to a virtual job interview with a foreign employer using English for communication. A video camera recorded each interview in order to observe and identify any problems that occurred during their communication. The post interview questionnaire was distributed after completion of each interview to collect additional information from the samples. The researcher used transcription and a qualitative method in order to analyze the data collected from the interview conversation, whilst using a computer program to analyze the post questionnaire data in terms of percentages and means.

The research found that all the samples experienced problems using the English language during the job interview. Common problems were related to the responses to the interview questions and the use of English. Providing clear answers to the interview questions was a critical problem for the samples especially with regard to their strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, the research result pointed out that the samples faced problems of English comprehension, whilst they believed that complicated questions, the interviewer’s accent, and the interviewer speaking too quickly, were the common problems which made them unable to understand and answer the questions. The result of the research would be of benefit to any job seekers who wish to improve and increase their potential for securing their desired job offer. Keywords: English communication problems, job interview communication problems, virtual job interview, job interview language usage, English language interview

* This article was compiled based on the thesis paper, “A study of English Communication Problems During an Employment Interview” which has been successfully defended. There were four members on the thesis defense committee which consisted of (1) Dr. Preeda Chaiya, (2) Assoc. Prof. Em-orn Dispanya, (3) Assoc. Prof. Yaowaluck Tantanapornchai, and (4) Assoc. Prof. Dr. M.L. Jaralvilai Charunrochana.




The researcher found that the all samples experienced problems

using English language during the job interview. The common problems

were related to the responses to the interview questions and the use of

English language. Providing clear answers to the interview questions was a

critical problem for the samples especially with regard to their strengths

and weaknesses. Moreover, the research result pointed out that the samples

faced problems of English comprehension, whilst they believed that the complicated

questions, the interviewer’s accent, and the interviewer speaking too quickly, were the

common problems which made them unable to understand and answer the questions.

The result of the research would be of benefit to any job seeker who wishes to improve

and increase their potential for securing their desired job offer.

Keywords: English Communication Problems, Job Interview communication problems,

Virtual Job Interview, Job Interview Language Usage, English Language Interview

Background

English language plays an important role along with the impending ASEAN

Economic Community, and its use represents greater opportunity for its speaker when

the AEC is fully operational. English is viewed very much as the language of business, as

Anyan (2006) points out that Thais learn language almost exclusively because of a

desire to better their career prospects rather than their intrinsic interest. However,

Thais still struggle to use English language proficiently in their working life as revealed

by numerous research studies (e.g. Prapaipan Lumchan, 2004; Preeda Chaiya, 1998;

Pulawit Thongtang, 2009; Sirikanya Luankanokrat, 2011; Wanthana Khunmuen, 2003)

conducted across various work areas in regard to English communication problems

encountered, and have shown that the lack of necessary English language skills and the

lack of ability in English comprehension, including communication behavior, are the

major causes of communication problems.

In the age of the AEC, a better career opportunity will become a challenge to

Thais, and in order to succeed, applying for a better job is the first step in landing a

prospective position, and thus, an employment interview is most important.




Winsor, Curtis, and Stephens (as cited on Berko, Wolvin, and Wolvin (2007, p.3)

state, “The ability to communicate effectively often determines a person’s perceived

overall competency and level of success.”, whilst Clark, Tinervia, and Zimmer (1988)

agree that the job interview may be the most important use which the candidate makes

of oral communication, for their future may depend upon their success in selling

themselves during the interview. Therefore, job seekers must be able to demonstrate

their capability to communicate during the employment interview process, and they

will need to prove both their qualifications and their English language ability.

Objectives/Research Questions

In this thesis, the researcher investigates English communication problems that

occurred during an employment interview with two specific purposes, to investigate

English language used as a tool of communication during the job interview and to

determine the problems frequently occurring during the job interview process related

to language and communication.

The two research questions of this study include “How did the sample’s

candidates apply the different facets of their English language skill during the interview

conversation?” and “In what areas of the interview conversation did the sample’s

candidates encounter most difficulty and why?”

Research Methodology

This research employs a qualitative method and transcription technique in order

to investigate and identify any problems that occur in English language communication

during an employment interview.

The subjects of this study consisted of sixty participants volunteered from pre-

graduate senior students from university level and professional employees in various

companies.

There are three research instruments used in this study. The first instrument is

the topic questions which were designed for the native English speaker to conduct the

interview and incorporated the questions to be asked of the participants in a simulation

of a typical job interview. The next instrument is the video or voice recording of the

conversation between the interviewer and interviewee (participant), and the last




instrument is the post questionnaires designed for the participants to complete after the

interview.

During the conversation the interviewer was analysing both the communication

capability and the English language usage of the interviewee by scoring based on the

individual’s English language communication performance. The score ranged between 0

to 5, where 0 means unable to perform whilst 5 means performed excellently.

The data obtained from either video or voice recorder were transcribed in order

to identify any problems that occurred and were analyzed using a qualitative method

procedure, whilst the data from the post questionnaires were analyzed using

quantitative method.

Findings

The major concern, which originated from this study, was to find a way to help

individuals cope satisfactorily with communication comprehension in job interview

situations. A mock interview was selected as the method for this study because it can

demonstrate a comprehension of language used on both verbal and nonverbal

communication.

The data from video or voice recordings and the questionnaires can be analyzed

to determine the difficulties experienced during a conversation in English, and how

those factors may impact an employment interview outcome.

The participants were divided into four groups based on the number of years of

working experience; (1) Entry group who possessed no working experience, (2) Junior

group who possessed working experience of between one to five years, (3) Middle

group who possessed working experience of between six to ten years, and (4) Senior

group who possessed working experience of eleven or more years.

The strongest English language ability claimed by participants (Figure 1) was

that of reading skill (51.67%) and the weakest was writing skill (66.67%), whilst most

of the participants claimed that, their English language skills were all good (Figure 2).




Figure 1: The strongest and the weakest of English language abilities declared by

participants on the post questionnaire

Figure 2: The participants claims of their English language abilities on the post

questionnaire

The claim of their English language skills being good would indicate that, for

most of the participants, they believe that their English abilities are of a good standard

with regard to speaking, reading, and writing skills.

The results of the interview according to the communication competency (Figure

3) shows that Senior group performed well on communication competency (40.44),

followed by Middle group (31.77), and then Junior group (26.83), and finally the Entry

group (12.89). With regard to the English usage (Figure 3), the result revealed a similar

trend to communication competency in that the Senior still performs well (32.33),

followed by Middle (28.38), Junior (23.76), and Entry (10.89).




Figure 3: The score of communication competency and English language usage

performance divided by work experience

In comparing the results of the interview between the communication

competency assessed (Figure 3) and the strongest English language ability claimed by

the participants (Figure 1), the results show that the real ability of using English

language of the participants was below the quality that they claimed.

The participants conversations during the interview were scored for each

individual and the total score of each group had identified the proficiency in their

communication during the interview. As shown in Table 1, the Senior group performed

better than the other groups on every topic, whilst the Entry group scored the minimum

on all the topics. For each topic a total was calculated for each group from which a mean

score could be derived to contrast between the various topics for each group and

between the groups. The topic with the highest mean score is honesty and integrity

(7.93) and the topic with the lowest mean score is personal objectives (4.28).




Table 1: The score of interview performance on conversation topics from each group

With regard to English language usage, the problems which the participant were

facing (Table 2) were, (1) using incorrect grammar, (2) wrong pronunciation, (3) don’t

know the vocabulary, (4) incorrect use of vocabulary, (5) mixing English language with

Thai language, (6) did not understand questions, and (7) an inability to convey the

correct meaning.

Table 2: The problems found, according to English language usage

Moreover, the problems frequently found according to the nature of the

interview (Table 3) were (1) insufficient research on the job requirements or did not




understood the duties of the job applied for, (2) have not prepared questions to ask the

interviewer at the end of the interview, (3) acting distracted or displaying bad manners

(etiquette), (4) using empty language, such as "like", "you know", "um", "ah", and "I

think", (5) not applying careful and attentive listening to questions asked and not giving

thoughtful consideration to what was asked before responding to questions, (6) not

showing or demonstrating sufficiently one’s value or emphasis on what benefits one can

bring to the job, rather than what one expects to get from company, (7) not providing a

relevant answer in accordance with what was actually asked, (8) unable to recall or

verify the information they filled in on the application form, (9) displaying nervousness,

(10) lack of confidence in their own abilities, (11) failure to give thanks to the

interviewer before leaving, and (12) building a suitable impression before leaving the

interview.

The participants also believed that “a complicated question” was their major

problem whilst they indicated that “cannot answer the questions” was not a problem as

shown on Table 4.

Table 3: The problems of communicating, according to the interview quality




Table 4: The questionnaire results of the problems found during the interview

Discussions

The research aims to investigate English communication problems during an

employment interview.

The sample’s candidates with various English language skill seemed to apply

different facets of their English language skill during the interview. The person with

better English language skill was able to communicate better than the one who does not.

The participants with better English language skill could perform better in their

communication in terms of comprehension; however, their work experience and

interview experience also would have an effect on the outcome of the job offered as

would their preparation, or lack of, for the job interview.

The areas of the interview conversation where the sample’s candidates

encountered most difficulty was in handling a complicated question or where they

could not understand clearly, and at the same time, the most difficult interview question

which most of the participants suffered with is the one regarding their personal

objectives. The main reasons for the problems were the limitations of their

communication abilities in English and the lack of adequate preparation for a job

interview. The limitation of communicating in English would depend on personal

knowledge and their ability in using English language. The person who has better

knowledge and ability to use English would better communicate and would have better

comprehension because they could understand the questions better. In the same way,




the person who prepares well for the interview would be able to respond to the

interview questions better than the one who does not.

The result of the research highlights the different problems which occurred

during the investigation which are as follows;

In order to be effective in English communication, prior practice is a must and in

order to win the job offer, being well prepared is essential. From the study, we can

observe the differences in the English communication and the interview performance

between people who perform better on communication during the interview and those

who do not perform as well.

The participants at the entry level were facing a lot more problems than those in

other levels, mainly because they were not well prepared for the interview, for example

they did not possess knowledge on the job which they applied for as well as

inexperience in participating in a job interview. As Ryckman (1982) states “When you

apply for a job, you are a salesman... to be successful a salesman must know all there is

to know about his product.” In other words, if a person wants to win the job offer, they

should learn more about the position they are applying for and prepare themselves on

how they can add value to the offering employer.

From the result, some candidates were not well prepared for the interview,

therefore, their performance results were not impressive to the interviewer. For

example, the interviewees did not know the functions of the job that they were applying

for. This caused the interviewer to think that the candidate was not interested in the job

that they were applying for, because it is the candidate’s responsibility to prepare for

those details. Hanna (1984, p 178) states “you will be ahead of many other candidates

for a job if you do some research about the specific organization to which you are

applying. Just as you would be impressed if a recruiter took the time and effort to study

your resume toughly, employers are gratified if you take time to study their company.”

Thus, it is important for every candidate to learn more about the company and the job

requirement in order to secure the job offer. Whilst it may be acceptable to be

inexperienced in a job role when applying for a junior position, one would be expected

to have some knowledge of what the function of the role is that one is applying for.

Some of the participants could not recall the information they had filled in on the

application, which is one of many major problems, because all the information filled in

could result in a relevant question which the interviewer would ask the candidate




during the interview. Clark, Tinervia, and Zimmer (1988) suggests that “Before the

interview, be sure you have collected and reviewed the necessary information about

your personal qualifications.”

During the interview, there were many interviewees especially at the entry level

who possessed no prior interview experience, who displayed their nervousness. When

the interviewee feels nervous, then involuntary behaviors will likely appear such as

scratching, shaking or trembling, and changes in vocal pitch and stability. An article on

“The Job Interview User Guide” (2012) explains that, showing inappropriate behaviour

will reduce the chance to pass the interview by 50%, thus being well prepared before

the interview will reduce the feeling of nervousness and increase the chance of creating

a favourable impression in the interview. This includes the preparation of the possible

questions that may be asked by the interviewer during the interview which would also

help to reduce the nervousness and pressure on the interviewee.

Understanding the questions being asked by the interviewer is also very

important. There are many times during this study in which the interviewees could not

provide the appropriate answer to the questions being asked. Apart from the language

barrier, not listening carefully to the questions being asked, was the cause of failure in

the interview.

An article on “Most Common Interviewing Mistakes” (2012) explains that “Not

employing careful and attentive listening and thoughtful consideration before

responding to questions is a sure fire method of bombing your interview.”

The candidates should practice and learn how to answer the interview questions

accurately because being unprepared to answer the question may indicate that the

candidate has not spent enough time preparing for the interview or the candidate is not

a self-starter or lacks initiative.

Besides the interview conversation, the interviewee should show self-confidence

though attentive listening, strong eye contact, good posture, maintain positive two-way

communication, and try to avoid empty language components such as “um”, “you

know”, and “like”.

One of the interview questions which was commonly asked during the job interview

was “Why I should hire you?” or “What is the value you can bring to my company?” A

question similar to this will often be asked by the interviewer in order to establish

whether the candidate is more focused on what they will get from the job rather than




having thought about demonstrating to the interviewer the commitment and value they

might bring to the company if they were employed.

The final problem which the research shall point out is that, the participant does

not provide well thought out or structured answers which shows poor communication

skills, as well as a lack of rational thinking ability. These problems may result from the

language barrier or they may be the result of inadequate preparation for the interview.

Recommendations

Based on the findings and conclusions of the study, the following

recommendations are made for further research.

First, more research could be conducted using the same model and method but

focusing on more specific groups of participants in order to compare their

communication proficiency. This would provide useful information for a job hunter in

order to prepare them for a job interview. Next, the research could be conducted using

the same model but focusing on what is/are the most effective answer(s) to the

frequently asked interview questions. The result of the research would help to improve

and advise an idea of what is/are the most effective answer(s) to the frequently asked

interview questions. Final recommendation is to conduct the study with a focus on the

interviewer’s point of view with regard to the communication problems encountered

during the employment interview. The information obtained for the study could be

useful for a job hunter’s self-development and their attitude toward a better job

interview.

References

Anyan, J. (2006, April 1). Different families, not distant cousins: Comparing Thai and English. MED Magazine.

Berko, R. M., Wolvin, A. D., & Wolvin, D. R. (2007). Communicating: A social and career focus. (10th ed.). USA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Clark, L. R., E. D., Tinervia, J. B. A., & Zimmer, K. E. D., (1988). Business English communication. (7th ed., pp. 623-628). Singapore: McGraw-Hill Book Co-Singapore.




Hanna, Michael S. (1984). Communicating in business and professional settings. (1st ed.). USA: Monotype Composition Co.

Most common interviewing mistakes. Retrieved September 28, 2012, from http://www.zoominterviews.com/job/resources/interview-guides/how-not-to-kill-your-interview.php

Prapaipan Lumchan. (2004). English communication problems of Thai foreign relations officials. Master of arts, Ramkhamhaeng University.

Preeda Chaiya. (1998). The study of the correlation between the awareness of social communication factors and the ability of spoken English communication among Thai hotel front office staff. Master of arts, Ramkamhaeng University.

Pulawit Thongtang. (2009). The state and problems in using English for communication of medical personnel to serve foreign emergency patients: A case study of Uttaradit hospital. Master of arts, Uttaradit Rajabhat University.

Ryckman, W. G. (1982). How to pass the employment interview (with flying colors). USA: Dow Jones-Irwin.

Sirikanya Luankanokrat. (2011). Needs analysis for English communication skills of employees at HSBC in Thailand. Master of arts, Thammasat University.

The job interview user guide: Your behaviour during interview (your goal is the offer). Retrieved September 28, 2012, from http://www.jobinterviewplus.com/interview_during.html

Wanthana Khunmuen. (2003). A study of the English communication problems of business English students at Suan Dusit Rajabhat Institute with foreign teachers. Master of arts, Ramkhamhaeng University.

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