Abstracts
Abstract
According to expectation violation theory, job applicants can be upgraded or downgraded during an interview when their accent does not match employers’ speech expectations. Focusing on the employment of second language French job candidates in Québec, this study explored this issue dynamically in terms of how expectations may impact the trajectory of interview evaluations. Participants included 60 Québec French raters and 6 female job candidates applying to a waitress or pizza cook position, presented through their resumes as either first (L1) or second (L2) language French speakers. Each speaker’s interview audios were presented to raters in expectancy-congruent and expectancy-incongruent scenarios. Raters first provided resume-based employability assessments, then two more evaluations throughout a typical sequence of interview questions. The congruent and incongruent scenarios revealed similar evaluation patterns, where the L2 French cook applicant’s employability improved after initially being downgraded. Implications are discussed regarding listeners’ readjustment of their perceptions following first-impression biases.
Keywords:
- Expectation violation theory,
- accent expectancy violations,
- job interview,
- employability,
- L2 French
Résumé
Selon la théorie de la violation des attentes, les candidats peuvent être surclassés ou déclassés lorsque leur accent ne correspond pas aux attentes de l'employeur. Se focalisant sur l'emploi de candidates français langue seconde (L2) au Québec, cette étude a exploré la façon dont les attentes peuvent influencer les évaluations d'entrevue. Les participants comprenaient 60 évaluateurs Québécois et 6 candidates postulant à un poste de serveuse ou de pizzaiolo, présentées par leurs CV comme locutrices natives ou L2 de français. Les évaluateurs ont écouté les entretiens dans des scénarios congruents et incongrus. Ils ont évalué l'employabilité des candidates d'abord sur des CV puis deux fois après des questions d'entretien. Les scénarios congruents et incongrus ont révélé des évaluations similaires, où l'employabilité de la candidate pizzaiolo français L2 s'est améliorée après avoir été initialement déclassée. Les implications sont discutées quant au réajustement des perceptions suite à des biais de première impression.
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