Abstract

Utterances that often contain stressed words assist in communicating the intended message clearly. The correct use of stressed words in job interviews is crucial for interviewees to interact effectively with the interviewer. This study aims to analyse how fresh graduates in job interviews to elicit favourable reviews from interviewers use stressed words. The job interview data, which involved 10 successful interviewees, were gathered from a small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) in Malaysia. The data were annotated with Jefferson's (2004) transcription notation, which focuses on stressed words. Allwood's (1976) communicative behaviour framework of phonological patterns and Wong's (1987) analytical framework of stressed words are used to analyse qualitatively. The findings show that the interviewees used a one-word category, two-word category, phrases and phrases of more than two words. Using these stressed words are crucial because it shows interviewees' language competency, which is important in securing employment.