Session 7: Interviews
This week's discussion was on the topic of interviewing, specifically interviewing speakers of languages other than English. I remember realizing at some point that I could not do a full ethnographic interview for this assignment because I had such limited time during the school day to observe and interview students. I would have loved to follow them around for an entire day, more than once perhaps, to generate more personalized questions and to learn more about the students' backgrounds, social habits, and language usage from observation.
At this point I had read work by Talmy (2010), Bateman (2002), and Corbett (2003) who have done ethnographic interviewing for the purposes of collecting social information about the interviewee. All emphasized that the self of the interviewer has an effect on the findings of the study, and that interviews are a social use of language which engages the questioner and respondent in a dialogue about language. In my post below you can see that I am concerned about how my beliefs and questions might interfere with the results. I think this was an important realization to make, that I was going to be part of the study as well as the English learners I was questioning.
At this point I had read work by Talmy (2010), Bateman (2002), and Corbett (2003) who have done ethnographic interviewing for the purposes of collecting social information about the interviewee. All emphasized that the self of the interviewer has an effect on the findings of the study, and that interviews are a social use of language which engages the questioner and respondent in a dialogue about language. In my post below you can see that I am concerned about how my beliefs and questions might interfere with the results. I think this was an important realization to make, that I was going to be part of the study as well as the English learners I was questioning.
Amanda's reflection on March 2, 2014:
1. From the readings, what did you learn about conducting interviews esp. with English language learners and/or bilingual speakers? What should you consider in the process of an interview?
The Talmy (2010) article brought my attention to the difference between interviews as "research instrument" and interviews as "social practice," and some of the ways that the interviewer's role in the interview process should be brought into the analysis and presentation of collected data. It would be problematic to interview English language learners and not mention the interviewer's relationship to the student, how the questions were presented, and to ignore the fact that this is an interview taking place and not a comprehensive statement of the interviewee's beliefs and voice. It must be considered that the person being interviewed is responding under particular conditions and may have complex reasons for answering certain questions in certain ways. Most of all the researcher must take care not to try to remain "invisible" in the reporting & analysis phase.
I found the Corbett (2003) chapter to be very informative as to how to go about conducting an interview and what to pay attention to for purposes of analyzing the responses and the way in which interviewees give responses. I am considering making use of a Spanish-speaking staff member to assist me in conducting an interview with a non-native English speaker, because it was suggested in this text. Whether or not I use an interpreter, I should be careful in considering our interview to be a focused conversation and not a collection of facts or quantitative information. Corbett brings attention to the ways that interviews are cross-cultural exchanges of information and part of your relationship with the respondent.
2. Whom are you planning to interview for your interview project (due on March 25)? What is your motivation for interviewing them? What are their backgrounds?
I am hoping some of the students at the middle school where I work will self-select themselves to be included in my sample for qualitative interviews. I am a paraprofessional in the SPED department and some of my students are also English learners. I am not in a position to administer grades to the students but I do assist them with their classwork and provide language assistance sometimes. I have spoken with the ESL para and teacher and may choose a student I work with as well as a student at another grade level whom I would not have a pre-existing relationship with. I would like to get students of different backgrounds, so I might have one speaker of Spanish and one speaker of Arabic from possible interview candidates.
The student whose first language is Arabic is a student I have worked in close proximity to in the past, and have listened to her give presentations about her home country, so I have some information beforehand about her background. I know that her parents brought her here when she was six and that her younger siblings have spent more of their lives in America than she has, and are less advanced in their Arabic studies than she is. I think it would be interesting to interview her because from what I can tell she is comfortable talking with me about her culture and family and is an eighth grader ready to go on to high school next year, and I'm curious what her perceptions are of the ESL program and being a speaker of a foreign language upon arriving in the states.
The other student hopefully will be from another grade level and may be a student who does not know me personally. I have the choice to interview any of my eighth grade students who receive ESL services but I think it would be interesting to get to know someone new in the building whom I will possibly work with in future school years.
3. How would you conduct interviews with your participants? In what settings? For how long? etc. What would you like to know by interviewing them?
I will most likely need to conduct the interviews over several sessions. I was thinking that a few meetings of 15-20 minutes would be sufficient to as a few key questions per day without taking too much time out of the student's school day. It might be possible to interview the student before school in a private and rewarding environment such as the library. I had mentioned to the ESL teacher that the student could meet with me in exchange for being exempted from some other speech-related task because they would be using school time to engage in the "interview genre". The important thing for me is that I do not want to take away from instructional time or work time that the student might need to keep up in their studies.
I hope to learn by interviewing the students what their experience has been in speaking a language other than English and how they perceive it to be positive and negative if at all. I want to know the role they feel that language has in their social and academic life and what their goals are for learning English or other languages, and how they feel their multiple languages serve to form part of their identity.
Kara's reply:
It'll be interesting to read about your interviews, particularly with the one conduced with the person who you are assuming you won't know at all. This will force you to truly be an ethnographic interviewer, described in the articles, and you'll genuinely be putting what we learned to the test in an interview with a stranger in order to build a rapport, collect, and report on the clearest truths you can get them to share in their interviews.
Abduljabbar's reflection:
Dear All: Hi.
The ideas that are presented in the reading of this weeks represent the situations that surround cultural or ethnographic interviews. The problems That I see myself in interviews and that are supported by the reading are in two main layers, language and culture. Moreover, each of them is divided into subdivisions. First of all, participants' language level should be eligible for discussing cultural issues. Second, the level of status of both the interviewer and the interviewee should be the same personally and linguistically. Thirdly, The openness in interviews may enhance the chance for more information to come from the interviewees. Fourthly, acceptance for other cultures may lead to success in FL students quest for learning a second language. At this point, a problem emerge, Educators from around the globe become less scientific and more nationalists. Many educators around the globe would not accept to teach the foreign culture to their country kids as that may represent a threat to their culture. Instead, they represent the foreign language through their culture, Which to me, deform both cultures. At this point, we cannot blame them but we have introduce to them the bad consequences of this process. Language and culture are inseparable. Culture is presented through language and vice versa. Fifthly, interviews are like mines of precious stones , in which, interviewer should not be in haste. Sixthly, interviews are for interviewee, therefore, most of the interview time should be given to the interviewee. Seventhly, I think that interviewer should begin by the similarities between cultures to put a common ground and then s/he could go to the differences and present them as one of the natural characteristics of human being.
With regard to my interviewee, whom I did not specify yet. I will target an Arabic student of English as a second Language. I will choose a student who is able to communicate in English and if s/he could not do so, I will give him or her the chance to speak in his or her L1. I will use the simplest language I could use and I will avoid the jargon of applied linguists. Afterward, I will connect what I believe with their perception about language learning and whether we 'teacher and students' have a common ground or not. I might focus part of my interview on vocabulary acquisition which is my interest. The students are studying English here in KU and trying to pursue their undergraduate or postgraduate studies in US.
In conducting my interviews, I will do my best to apply what I have mentioned in the first paragraph. With regard to time span, I will not specify a time. Moreover, I will use a few questions to elicit their responses and give them the chance to speak. I will give them the chance to present ideas in their way and then I will do my best to connect them with second language theories. I would like to know the ways through which they went in learning English, I know that cannot uncover the whole processes but it may give me a chance to explore some of the issues that interest me.
Amanda's reply:
Hello Abduljabbar, thank you for posting your ideas about the ESL interviews. I see that you have spent some time thinking about how culture and language are related. I think it would be very valuable to ask your interview subjects a question about how they see the benefits and costs of learning a new language and culture. Do they feel a change in their identity as they learn L2? They might have their own ideas & unique perspectives on this topic.
I like that you included in your list #7, building a rapport and connection to the person you are interviewing. By the time you get to the analysis stage it will be interesting to see how your interests and perspectives about language acquisition are connected to what the interview subjects have to tell you about their experiences.