Preparing Students for Professional Communication in Transnational Education
A Contrastive Analysis of Korean and International English Employment Interview Material
Keywords:
Transnational Education, Employment Interviews, Graduate Employability, Pragmatic FunctionsAbstract
Employment interviews are an important form of professional communication, yet little research has compared how Korean and internationally developed interview preparation materials represent interview communication. This study employs a qualitative contrastive content analysis of Korean and international employment interview questions. Drawing on Kearsley's (1976) framework of question forms and Candlin's (1976) framework of pragmatic functions, interview questions were analyzed according to their grammatical structure and communicative purpose. The findings indicate that while both corpora rely predominantly on open-ended questions, Korean materials emphasize factual information and qualification confirmation, whereas international materials place greater emphasis on explanation, reflection, and professional self-presentation. These patterns suggest different pedagogical conceptions of employment interview communication. The study argues that effective interview preparation should move beyond teaching question types toward developing learners' awareness of the communicative purposes and professional expectations embedded in interview questions. The findings contribute to employment interview pedagogy and curriculum development for multilingual professional communication within transnational higher education.
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