A Syntactical Analysis of Fresh Graduates’ Job Interview Responses

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to investigate (a) the English language proficiency concerning sentence structure in fresh graduates, and (b) hiring managers’ perceptions of the importance of English proficiency in the 21st century workplace. There were forty-five candidates and twenty-five hiring managers from local and foreign instituitions who participated in the study. The data were analysed qualitatively using a sentence structure framework: simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex. The findings revealed that most candidates used simple sentences and were unable to express their complete thoughts due to their lack in English language proficiency. The findings further revealed that hiring managers were willing to consider employing candidates who had good proficiency by expressing their complete thoughts in job interviews. This study has confirmed the need for fresh graduates and undergraduates to know the importance of sentence structures as an important benchmark to show one’s proficiency in job interviews.