Involving company representatives in helping university learners to develop sociopragmatic competence in English for job interviews

Graduates in the Vietnamese context seeking to enter the globalized workplace, where they will need to use English for business purposes in culturally appropriate ways, may be hindered not only by limited English proficiency in general, but also specifically by limited sociopragmatic competence. Sociopragmatic competence is really needed by candidates in job interviews in Vietnam and elsewhere when they present themselves positively at the beginning of the interview, engage in relational and transactional talk throughout, and answer interviewers’ questions at the end. Of the various strategies that may be employed at the university to support the development of such competence, one would be to involve local company representatives in helping English language teachers to prepare their students by simulating job interviews. This study reports on such an intervention in Vietnam. Drawing on observational data collected through notes and audio-recordings, the study provides insights into how the intervention utilized strategies that had the potential to enhance the employability of Vietnamese graduates. The study suggests that the real world expertise and professional guidance provided by company representatives could be utilized elsewhere in ways such as documented here to support teachers and university curriculum developers in designing teaching materials and tasks. Such partnerships between local companies and language teachers are likely to benefit learners needing to acquire sociopragmatic competence to be successful in situations such as job interviews.