Abstract |
Job interviews are resourceful to address discourse of flexibility and thus it helps learners of English aware of it critically. However, this relationship between questions for a job interview and the discourse of flexibility needs further exploration due to its limited number of studies on it (Chun, J.2016; Campbell-Avenell, Z.2017; Dunford, R. et. al 2013). This paper contributes to this area of inquiry by employing critical discourse analysis in investigating construction and negotiation of flexibility through an exercise of a job interview. Data are drawn from three sets of job interview exercise conducted in 2016 with 24 students of English Study Program of Madiun State Polytechnic. Two stages of analysis are carried out. Firstly, the patterns of questions in the job interview is presented and distributed. Secondly, the process of questioning and answering and their relation to the discourse of flexibility is analyzed. Findings and discussion reveal that the patterns of questions not only function for asking new and contextual information but also for evaluating interlocutor’s knowledge, for showing expectation, and as social control. The questions are closely related to flexibility discourse that involves the behavior of being highly responsive to any possible shift of regular format, target, and process to help make minor short-term steps in new budgeting and outsourcing. Negotiation of flexibility in the side of applicants is evident from the emerging patterns of the length of the declarative form of the reply, the adaptability of reply to the questions, and the degree of uncertainty of the reply. Key Words: Applicant, Job Interview, Critical Discourse Analysis, Flexibility, Negotiation.
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