VCE English Language

[Ella Stewart]

Does anyone know what the function and social purpose of job interview would be?

[lm21074]

Does anyone know what the function and social purpose of job interview would be?

Hi there Ella! Welcome to ATAR Notes - great to have you here

Ultimately, when thinking about function, what is the discourse trying to do (the function(s) of texts are a verb!)? An interview goes two ways. In terms of the interviewer, they are trying to assess a candidate's suitability for a job, as we can deduce from them asking questions relevant to the role. The candidate is there to persuade the interviewer to essentially give them the job. Overall though, a job interview is done to determine the suitability of a candidate.

Social purpose wise - what is the author trying to do socially? VCAA lists the social purposes they'd like you to use on pages 20 and 21 of the study design (click on this blue link!). I'd encourage you to take these social purposes and try to figure out which apply for a job interview, but I have left an idea in the spoiler below:

an idea of what some social purposes could be

In a job interview, the interviewer and interviewee may be trying to build rapport, clarify and maintain and challenge face needs.

Hope this helps


Edit: also note that texts can have multiple functions and social purposes! In past high scoring responses from VCAA exams, there have been social purposes that the study design deems as for formal texts be applied to informal texts, and vice versa. Please do check with your teacher to determine (kind of an ENL function!) what they would like to see in your SACs though.