Purpose: This study introduces a non-orthodox approach to the dominant policy-based approaches to graduate employability through contextualizing international students' everyday experiences within their educational and wider structural contexts of the labour market. Design/methodology/approach: The study used narrative frames to collect data from…

Drawing on Bourdieu's concept of linguistic capital and Darvin and Norton's notion of investment, this study explores heritage language (HL) use among 1.5-generation Korean immigrants in the New Zealand workplace. The data were collected through interviews with heritage speakers of Korean working in diverse fields in Auckland. The majority of the…

Narratives are often overlooked in workplace talk, but they contribute in crucial ways to relationship building and identity construction in workplace interaction. In this article we analyse narratives told by skilled migrants from non-English-speaking backgrounds during a workplace internship conducted as part of a Workplace Communication course.…

Reports an analysis of a 10-hour collection of conversations in a New Zealand factory office. Computer software was used to determine the content and vocabulary of the conversations. Discusses possible applications of the study for teachers of pre-employment English for specific purposes courses. (Author/VWL)

Drawing on a database of over 300 interactions collected in a range of New Zealand professional workplaces, this article identifies some potentially problematic areas for those who are expected to communicate in English at work when English is not their first language. Discussion focuses on small talk and social talk in the workplace. (Author/VWL)

The age of globalization requires an understanding of intercultural communication and diversity issues in workplaces. This is especially so in a country such as New Zealand, which has recently been experiencing the phenomenon of recruiting and attracting skilled, professional immigrants from China, India, and other parts of Asia and the Middle…