View Content #25081

By Zach Patrick-Riley, CASLS Fellow

Interviewing for a job in one’s first language is scary enough, but doing it another language adds an additional level of complexity. Providing useful strategies and language to succeed in real-life situations like a job interview makes learning relevant for students and is a salient example of why explicit pragmatic instruction is beneficial in language classrooms. The target proficiency level for this activity is Intermediate Mid to Advanced Low, and it was created for English language learners.

Objectives: Learners will be able to:

• Confidently perform a mock job interview, answering anticipated common interview questions
• Adapt register and language to the context of a job interview
• Narrate and describe a relevant professional experience and reason(s) for wanting to work at the target interview job context
• Articulate job interview similarities and differences from L1 language and culture.

Modes: Interpersonal, interpretive, presentational

Materials needed: LingroToGo Video (app available on iOS and Android devices): Work & School>Getting a Job>Introducing yourself in a Formal Context, Cut-out Interview Response Slips Sheet, Mock Job Interview Roleplay Sheet

Procedure:

1. The teacher asks students to close their eyes and imagine they have a job interview in the target language next week.

2. The teacher asks students to think about if they feel confident for it.

3. The students share with partners how they feel. The whole class briefly discusses, and the teacher explains that this lesson will help them feel more prepared.

4. Students watch the LingroToGo video Introducing yourself in a formal context and answer the question, “What advice does the video give about introducing yourself in a formal context?" Then, students should check their answers with a partner. *It is very important to emphasize that although the video discusses interviews in Spanish, the same ideas apply for English pragmatics.*

To further the analysis, students discuss the following questions in pairs:

• How does/should interacting in a high power-high distance interaction affect your speech? Why? *Teacher checks understanding by doing a concept checking question on low distance-low power interactions; for example, interacting with your best friend.
• What are the similarities and differences of job interviews from your L1 language and culture?

5. Teacher reiterates that using formal language is important for a job interview and transitions to introducing the Cut-out Interview Response Slips sheet. These slips should be cut out before class and placed into envelopes. The teacher divides the class into small groups (3-4 people a piece) and gives each group the envelopes. Students are to put the slips into one of the four categories which are bolded at the top of each box.

• Phrases for describing yourself/your last job
• Phrases for describing your profile/strengths
• Phrases for explaining why you want the job
• Phrases for describing weaknesses

6. The teacher shows the correct phrases on the board and clarifies any confusion. The teacher divides students into pairs by telling them to find someone in the class they don’t know too well as the greater the interpersonal distance the better the roleplay resembles a job interview.  

7.  The teacher hands each students Mock Job Interview Roleplay Sheet. Students take turns interviewing each other. The interviewer takes notes to give as feedback and the interviewee should answer the questions as fully and naturally as possible.

8. The teacher offers any relevant feedback they wrote down while observing the mock roleplays and wraps things up by having students discuss with partners, three things to keep in mind when you have a job interview.  

Notes/Modifications:

• In step 1, students can do a three-minute free write about how they feel about having a job interview next week.
• Involve students in the lesson more deeply by having them brainstorm common interview questions (in lieu of providing the questions to them).
• During the mock job interview role-play, learners should be encouraged to speak naturally. However, if some students are struggling with vocabulary, they can use the Cut-out Interview Response Slips Sheet as a guide. Additionally, learners can be given a copy of this sheet to review and practice with at home.