ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
This paper presents an aspect of the investigation into the interaction in professional discourse,that focuses on interpersonal meanings in a job interview. The theory of the interpersonal metafunction or the clause as exchange from systematic functional linguistics is used to analyse the interactions between interviewers and interviewees in job interviews. The study uses Mood and Modality to examine closely how interaction is carried out in the interviews. In an interview, the interviewer uses particular speech roles and the interviewee responds accordingly. However, the current study shows a variety of responses that do not always complement the interviewer’s speech role. Data for the study were obtained from 10 interviews from one interview session for the post of customer services. A qualitative content analysis was carried out using Halliday’s Systematic Functional Linguistic theory on the clause as exchange that was deemed suitable to bring out the various meanings in the interviews. A close examination of Mood and Modality was carried out on the recurrent themes in the interviews such as strengths and weaknesses, problem solving strategies and initiative and working experiences of the interviewees. The findings show that recent Malaysian graduates have used mostly “can”at 28 % and “will”at 35 % as Modality resources. A study on the grammatical realisation of interaction in interviews is necessary for recruitment companies, human resources personnel and interviewees themselves. The current study hopes to contribute towards an understanding of current market demands for hiring employees in terms of interviews.
Abu Bakar, A. (2020). English barrier for Bumiputera graduates in job hunt. Retrieved January 15, 2021, from
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/09/20/english-barrier-for-bumiputera-graduates-in-job-hunt-says-mef/
Ahmed, & Farouk, D. A. (2008). How to improve the employability of graduates. Business Intelligence Journal, 2(2), 288-312.
Al-Atabi, M. (2019). Ensuring graduates have soft skills. The Star. Retrieved January 15, 2021, from https://www.thestar.com.my/news/education/2019/01/20/ensuring-graduates-have-soft-skills/
Bhatia, V. J. (2004). Access a Profession: Professional Knowledge or Academic Knowledge In A Particular Field.(p.22).
Brown & Levinson. (1978).Politeness:Some universals in language usage.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Chau, C. (2021). Malaysian fresh grads urged to gain new skills to boost employability. Hrmasia. Retrieved September 24, 2021, from https://hrmasia.com/malaysian-
fresh-grads-urged-to-gain-new-skills-to-boost-employability/
Cai-yan, F. (2011). Functions of metaphors of modality in president’s radio addresses. 9(11,700-707), Retrieved 04 December, 2021, from http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/70274053/functions-metaphors-modality-presidents-radio-addresses
David, W. (2009). Malaysia's english language crisis. New Strait Times. Retrieved 03
December, 2021, from http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Malaysias-English-language-crisis-30218090.html.
Doyle, A. (2012). What is Interview? Job searching: New York Terms Company.
Retrieved from http://jobsearch.about.com/od/interviewsnetworking/f/what-is-an-interview.htm(p.11).
Diah, S., Martin, L. M., Noer, J. S., & Mustafa, M.(2020).Mood and modality analyses in
investigating ideology of news about Indonesia in bbc world webnews, Journal
on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 3(3), 408-414.
Droga, L., & Humphrey, H. (2002). Getting Started with Functional Grammar. Australia: Target Texts (p.117).
Depraetere, I., & Reed, S. (2006). Mood and Modality in English. The handbook of English linguistics,Australia, Sydney : Springer-Verlag.
Eggins, S. (2004). An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. Great Britain: Continuum (p. 20).
Goodwin, C. (2004). Professional vision, Applied Linguistics, UCLA, Retrieved from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/clic/cgoodwin/94prof_vis.pdf.(pp.12)
Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.(pp.77- 126).
Halliday, M. A. K. (1985). Systemic Background. In "Systemic Perspectives on Discourse,1: Selected Theoretical Papers" from the Ninth International Systemic Workshop, Benson and Greaves (eds); . 3 in The Collected Works, (pp.121).
Holmes, J. (2009). Discourse in the workplace literature review. School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies , Retrieved 01 December 2021, from http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/centres-and-institutes/language-in-the-workplace/docs/ops/OP-12.pdf.(pp.12).
Jensen, K. (2007). A construction-based study of English predicators mood and modality, Journal of Modern Language, 5(2), 9-23.
Jian, X. (2009). Interpreting metaphor of modality in advertising English. 2(4), Retrieved 10 December 202, from
http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/elt/article/view/4459/0.
Kenayathulla, H. B., Ahmad, N. A., & Idris, A. R. (2019). Gaps between competence and importance of employability skills: Evidence from Malaysia. Higher Education Evaluation and Development, 13(2) 97-112.
Nezhad, P. M. R., & Tavakoli, F. H. (2013).The surveying of the polarity by mood adjuncts in persian language based on functional grammar approach, 9(32).
Martin, J. R. (2001). Language, register and genre. In Burns, A & Coffin, C (eds), Analysing English in a global context. London: Routledge.(p.57).
Nezhad, P. M. R., & Tavakoli, F. H. (2013).The surveying of the polarity by mood adjuncts in persian language based on functional grammar approach,9(32).
Olga, D. N. (2009). Interpersonal meanings in the genre of diplomatic addresses. Journal of Modern Language, 2(3), 11-18.
Perdana. E., & Saragih.A. (2009). Interpersonal metaphor in mata najwa’s talk show. Retrieved 10 December, 2021, from
http://jurnal.unimed.ac.id/2012/index.php/jalu/article/download/711/522.
Parodi, G. (2010). Academic and professional discourse genres in spanish.
Pauw, K. M. O. (2006). Graduate Unemployment in Malaysia.
Ruijuan. (2010). The interpersonal metafunction analysis of barack obama's victory speech. 3(2), Retrieved 02 December, 2021, from
http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/elt/article/view/6258/0.
Sarangi, S. (2010) Motivational relevancies: some methodological reflections on
sociolinguistic practice. Sociolinguistics and Social Theory 350-388. London: Pearson.(pp.17 & 30).
Schryer, C. F., & Spoel. (2005). Genre theory, healthcare discourse and professional
identify formation. Journal of Business and Technical Communication,19(3), 249).
Shayegh, K. (2012). Modality in political discourses of Barak Obama and Martin Luther
King. Science Road Publishing Corporation , Retrieved 10 December, 2021, from http://sciroad.com/TASE/TASE1231/TASE-
Swales, J. M. (1990).English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Syamsidar, S., Ika, Y., Dian. N. (2019). Mood And Modality in Soekarno’s 1955 Speech. Journal of Language and Literary studies, 2(2), 109-120.
Tan, S. M. (2010). A Systemic Functional Analysis of the Interpersonal Metaphor in Camputer Science Text. (Unpublished master’s thesis) University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.
Vazquez, I. V., & Diana, G.(2008). Beyond mood and modality: Epistemic modality markers as hedges in research articles. A cross-disciplinary study.21.
Wai, C. W. (2011). A handicap we must overcome. The Star. Retrieved 01 December, 2021, from http://www.thestar.com.my/story.aspx?file=/2011/3/13/focus/8256915&sec=focus.
Wong, N. L. (2009). The interpersonal aspect of help-seeking and help-providing text: A systemic functional investigation into mood and modality. (Unpublished master’s thesis), University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.
Yang S. (2021). A systemic functional study of the system of modality in Chinese. Sage
Publication, 3(3), 1-16.
In-Text Citation: (Krishnan & Sriniwass, 2022)
To Cite this Article: Krishnan, I. A., & Sriniwass, S. (2022). Interactions in Professional Discourses in Job Interviews: The Use of Interpersonal Meaning, Mood and Modality. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 12(1), 2057– 2077.
Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)
Published by HRMARS (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode