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Article: Gatekeeping and Linguistic Capital: a case study of the Cambridge university undergraduate admissions interview

TitleGatekeeping and Linguistic Capital: a case study of the Cambridge university undergraduate admissions interview
Authors
KeywordsGatekeeping
Interviews
University of Cambridge
Undergraduate admissions
Interactional sociolinguistics
Issue Date2021
PublisherElsevier BV. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/pragma
Citation
Journal of Pragmatics, 2021, v. 176, p. 137-149 How to Cite?
AbstractThe Cambridge University Admissions Interview is a gatekeeping encounter in which academic staff members question, and evaluate, prospective undergraduates on the subject they have applied to study. It is politically controversial as admittance to Cambridge brings unparalleled educational and professional advantages, yet privately-educated candidates are disproportionately successful, and thus appear to have greater “linguistic capital” at interview, when compared with their state-educated peers. Using the techniques of interactional sociolinguistics, the following paper details the shifting interactional requirements of six admissions interviews in English Literature. It finds that a successful interview performance is, in fact, determined by a candidate's ability to manage the (sometimes opposed) requirements of being both a responsive student and a convincing peer academic. Such requirements are shown to cut across, and problematize, the direct relationship perceived to exist between socio-educational background, linguistic capital and success at interview. The results from this study are used both to draw out the differences between the admissions interview and other types of interview setting, as well as to suggest research pathways for research.
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/297203
ISSN
2023 Impact Factor: 1.8
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 1.105
ISI Accession Number ID

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorWeston, D-
dc.date.accessioned2021-03-08T07:15:38Z-
dc.date.available2021-03-08T07:15:38Z-
dc.date.issued2021-
dc.identifier.citationJournal of Pragmatics, 2021, v. 176, p. 137-149-
dc.identifier.issn0378-2166-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/297203-
dc.description.abstractThe Cambridge University Admissions Interview is a gatekeeping encounter in which academic staff members question, and evaluate, prospective undergraduates on the subject they have applied to study. It is politically controversial as admittance to Cambridge brings unparalleled educational and professional advantages, yet privately-educated candidates are disproportionately successful, and thus appear to have greater “linguistic capital” at interview, when compared with their state-educated peers. Using the techniques of interactional sociolinguistics, the following paper details the shifting interactional requirements of six admissions interviews in English Literature. It finds that a successful interview performance is, in fact, determined by a candidate's ability to manage the (sometimes opposed) requirements of being both a responsive student and a convincing peer academic. Such requirements are shown to cut across, and problematize, the direct relationship perceived to exist between socio-educational background, linguistic capital and success at interview. The results from this study are used both to draw out the differences between the admissions interview and other types of interview setting, as well as to suggest research pathways for research.-
dc.languageeng-
dc.publisherElsevier BV. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/pragma-
dc.relation.ispartofJournal of Pragmatics-
dc.rightsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.-
dc.subjectGatekeeping-
dc.subjectInterviews-
dc.subjectUniversity of Cambridge-
dc.subjectUndergraduate admissions-
dc.subjectInteractional sociolinguistics-
dc.titleGatekeeping and Linguistic Capital: a case study of the Cambridge university undergraduate admissions interview-
dc.typeArticle-
dc.identifier.emailWeston, D: dweston@hku.hk-
dc.identifier.authorityWeston, D=rp02612-
dc.description.naturepostprint-
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.pragma.2021.02.002-
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-85101127549-
dc.identifier.hkuros321621-
dc.identifier.volume176-
dc.identifier.spage137-
dc.identifier.epage149-
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000652511400012-
dc.publisher.placeNetherlands-

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