2.2. Взаимодействие коммуникантов в речевом событии

Job interview is one of the most widespread social interactions. Each person comes up with it just once in his life. And it’s really attractive to know how this kind of interaction goes. The aim of this analysis is to retrace the interaction between participants of the communication event and find out their communication statuses.

This dialogue is the centerpiece of the face to face conversation. Only greetings and conversational gambit are missed because they have no investigative value. The event unfolds in the office of Imago Corporation in Tyumen, Russia in March 2013.This communication event is ‘an interview’. Interview is a formal meeting at which someone is asked questions in order to find out whether they are suitable for a job, course of study etc [Longman Dictionary Online].

Anastasia is an interviewer; she is a young woman, about 25 years old; she is a higher education professional in management and she’s a manager in the department of recruiting. The aim of Anastasia is to make sure that Svetlana is eligible for the position. She tries to achieve this goal by asking different questions and putting an interviewee in stressful situations. Svetlana is the interviewee; she is a middle-aged woman, about 40 years old. She is going into her second higher education in management and she has already graduated education in teaching. The aim of Svetlana is to show herself in the best light and get this job. The aims of participants and the official settings of the event presuppose that this dialogue refers to the informative genre of speech; it’s an official job interview. The behavior of both participants is under the influence of business etiquette. Socio-cultural context, norms of communication and conversational styles are all presupposed by this business etiquette.

The psychological scene of the event is rather calm and friendly but Anastasia breaks it time to time to examine Svetlana’s behavior in stressful situations. There is also some imperceptible tension between two participants; it’s caused by cultural difference, which will be analyzed later. Video-recording can be a kind of barrier in this communication event. The participants may feel awkward in front of the camera and it may cause some slight changes in their behavior.

Svetlana produced a higher proportion of clauses than Anastasia. Usually it’s a sign of dominance, but in this case it’s not (см. Приложение 3). This communication event refers to interview (informative genre) and it means that the larger extent of the information presented by Svetlana doesn’t show her dominance in the conversation. The dominance is shown with the help of exchange structure analysis (см. Приложение 4). Anastasia dominates in this dialogue because she initiates shifting of the topics; all “open” moves are made by Anastasia. Svetlana has mostly “continue” and “react” moves. “Continue” moves are more because Svetlana clarifies her attitude towards every point (that’s also why she uses elaboration and extension); her aim is to show herself in the best light. Negative clauses coincide with “rejoinder” moves. Svetlana uses negations to show that she’s not aware of this or that topic, while Anastasia uses it to see how Svetlana reacts to contradiction; it’s an important part of job interviews.

The lexico-grammatical structure of the communication event is predetermined by the genre (informative, job interview). Anastasia is an interviewer that’s why she uses mostly polar and wh-interrogatives. Svetlana is an interviewee that’s the reason of active usage of declaratives. The genre also influences on the subject choice. Anastasia’s aim is to interrogate Svetlana that’s why she uses polite address “Вы”. Svetlana’s aim is to present herself, as a result she frequently uses “Я”. Both participants actively use adjuncts but preference is given to formal style of communication. Interpersonal adjuncts are still acceptable because with the help of them Svetlana gives personal opinion and Anastasia estimates the interviewee. Frequent usage of moodless clauses is predetermined by Russian language colloquial peculiarities.

Returning to the exchange structure, it’s also important to remark that the genre influences on it too. Anastasia uses both ‘opinion’ questions and ‘state’ question, that’s a peculiar point for job interviews. Once Anastasia breaks the formal style by giving her personal opinion, it can be done purposely to see Svetlana’s reaction or maybe accidently. Usually people who work in recruiting departments take into consideration such things, so let’s suppose that it was done purposely.

Stylistics register of both participants is neutral due to the formal occasion (job interview). Semantic analysis (см. Приложение 5) shows that Anastasia and Svetlana produce a small amount of appraisal items in comparison with their clause-production. These appraisal items mostly refer to judgement. There are no affect items and there are a couple of engagement items. Only Svetlana produces amplification items for more effective self-promotion. Engagement is used by both participants to establish the contact, Anastasia uses naming and Svetlana uses technicality. The most frequently used judgement items are propriety and veracity. Anastasia examines the system of morals of the interviewee and its veracity by asking: “Конфликтные ситуации проходили на предыдущем месте работы? Как улаживали конфликт?”. Svetlana also uses propriety judgement items to present her system of morals: “Я смогу убедить и работодателя предложить лучшие условия. Если он заинтересован в качественном персонале и работник действительно этого стоит”.

As for para-verbal means, they don’t play the great role in this communication event because the participants are rather reserved and it’s predetermined by the formality of the situation. But still there are several moment to analyze. The prosodic parameters of this communication event are mostly neutrally-balanced. Both participants have smooth tone level, medium volume of sound, medium melodic diapason, steady prominence of accented syllables and medium speech tempo. But when Anastasia asks a provocative question, Svetlana’s speech tone and volume of sound raise and she starts to give more prominence to accented syllables; the prosodic parameters become aggressive. After such a ‘conflict’ Svetlana tries to tune it up and laughs, turns it to a joke.

As for nonverbal means, they have only companion character. Before asking a question Anastasia looks into the papers (to make sure about its applicability). Svetlana touches her watches, contextually it’s a sign that the interview comes to an end. When the participants touch upon personal points, they smile to smoother it, to make these points more formal. All in all para-verbal and nonverbal means have their expression in speech and can be easily analyzed verbally.

Finally, it should be noted that this dialogue is symmetrical. Anastasia is an initiator of the conversation; she opens all the topics while Svetlana produces bigger number of clauses. These two facts create a balancing act and make it symmetrical. Socio-cultural norms are kept: formal stylistic register, neutral prosodic pattern, rather passive non-verbal communication. This communication event is effective and cooperative. Both participants meet their aims. Anastasia asked all necessary questions and formed the image of the interviewee. Svetlana showed herself in the best light and got the job. This communication event was ended up successfully.