Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T10:47:14.408Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Qualitative Interviews in Applied Linguistics: From Research Instrument to Social Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2010

Steven Talmy
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Interviews have been used for decades in empirical inquiry across the social sciences as one or the primary means of generating data. In applied linguistics, interview research has increased dramatically in recent years, particularly in qualitative studies that aim to investigate participants’ identities, experiences, beliefs, and orientations toward a range of phenomena. However, despite the proliferation of interview research in qualitative applied linguistics, it has become equally apparent that there is a profound inconsistency in how the interview has been and continues to be theorized in the field. This article critically reviews a selection of applied linguistics research from the past 5 years that uses interviews in case study, ethnographic, narrative, (auto)biographical, and related qualitative frameworks, focusing in particular on the ideologies of language, communication, and the interview, or the communicable cartographies of interviewing, that are evident in them. By contrasting what is referred to as an interview as research instrument perspective with a research interview as social practice orientation, the article argues for greater reflexivity about the interview methods that qualitative applied linguists use in their studies, the status ascribed to interview data, and how those data are analyzed and represented.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics , Volume 30 , March 2010 , pp. 128 - 148
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alvesson, M. (2003). Beyond neopositivists, romantics, and localists: A reflexive approach to interviews in organizational research. Academy of Management Review, 28, 13–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, M., Squire, C., & Tamboukou, M. (Eds.). (2008). Doing narrative research. Los Angeles: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Antaki, C., Billig, M., Edwards, D., & Potter, J. (2003). Discourse analysis means doing analysis: A critique of six analytic shortcomings. Discourse Analysis Online, 1. Retrieved January 1, 2004, from http://extra.shu.ac.uk/daol/articles/open/2002/002/antaki2002002-paper.htmlGoogle Scholar
Atay, D., & Ece, A. (2009). Multiple identities as reflected in English-language education: The Turkish perspective. Journal of Language, Identity, & Education, 8, 21–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, P., & Silverman, D. (1997). Kundera's Immortality: The interview society and the invention of the self. Qualitative Inquiry, 3, 304–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baek, M., & Damarin, S. K. (2008). Computer-mediated communication as experienced by Korean women students in U.S. higher education. Language and Intercultural Communication, 8, 192–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, C. (2002). Ethnomethodological analyses of interviews. In Gubrium, J. F. & Holstein, J. A. (Eds.), Handbook of interviewing: Context and method (pp. 777–795). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Baker, C. (2004). Membership categorization and interview accounts. In Silverman, D. (Ed.), Qualitative research: Theory, method, and practice (2nd ed., pp. 162–176). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Bamberg, M. (2000). Critical personalism, language and development. Theory & Psychology, 10, 749–767.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauman, R., & Briggs, C. (1990). Poetics and performance as critical perspectives on language and social life. Annual Review of Anthropology, 19, 59–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benwell, B., & Stokoe, E. H. (2006). Discourse and identity. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Block, D. (2000). Problematizing interview data: Voices in the mind's machine? TESOL Quarterly, 34, 757–763.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blommaert, J. (2005). Discourse: A critical introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3 (2), 77–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briggs, C. (1986). Learning how to ask: A sociolinguistic appraisal of the role of the interview in social science research. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briggs, C. (2007a). Anthropology, interviewing, and communicability in contemporary society. Current Anthropology, 48, 551–567.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briggs, C. (2007b). The Gallup poll, democracy, and vox populi: Ideologies of interviewing and the communicability of modern life. Text & Talk, 27 (5/6), 681–704.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burman, E. (2004). Discourse analysis means analysing discourse: Some comments on Antaki, Billig, Edwards and Potter: “Discourse analysis means doing analysis: A critique of six analytic shortcomings.” Discourse Analysis Online, 2. Retrieved January 1, 2004, from http://extra.shu.ac.uk/daol/articles/open/2003/003/burman2003003-paper.htmlGoogle Scholar
Campbell, S., & Roberts, C. R. (2007). Migration, ethnicity and competing discourses in the job interview: Synthesizing the institutional and personal. Discourse & Society, 18, 243–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canagarajah, A. S. (2008). Language shift and the family: Questions from the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 12, 143–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, S., Motha, S., & Price, J. N. (2008). Accessing imagined communities and reinscribing regimes of truth. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 5, 165–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chavez, M. M. (2007). The orientation of learner language use in peer work: Teacher role, learner role and individual identity. Language Teaching Research, 11, 161–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheung, E. (2005). Hong Kong secondary schoolteachers’ understanding of their careers. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 11, 127–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cicourel, A. V. (1964). Method and measurement in sociology. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Creese, A. (2006). Supporting talk? Partnership teachers in classroom interaction. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 9, 434–453.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Creswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2000). The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 1–28). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Drew, P., & Heritage, J. (1992). Talk at work: Interaction in institutional settings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Edwards, D., & Potter, J. (1992). Discursive psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Edwards, D., & Potter, J. (2005). Discursive psychology, mental states, and description. In te Molder, H. & Potter, J. (Eds.), Conversation and cognition (pp. 241–259). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eggins, S. (2005). Introduction to systemic function linguistics (2nd ed.). London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fontana, A., & Prokos, A. H. (2007). The interview: From formal to postmodern. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Gao, X. (2008). You had to work hard ‘cause you didn't know whether you were going to wear shoes or straw sandals! Journal of Language, Identity, & Education, 7, 169–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gee, J. P. (2004). Discourse analysis: What makes it critical? In Rogers, R. (Ed.), Critical discourse analysis in education (pp. 19–50). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Gee, J. P. (2005). An introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society: Outline of a theory of structuration. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Golombek, P., & Jordan, S. R. (2005). Becoming “black lambs” not “parrots”: A poststructuralist orientation to intelligibility and identity. TESOL Quarterly, 39, 513–533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gubrium, J. F., & Holstein, J. A. (2002a). From the individual interview to the interview society. In Gubrium, J. F. & Holstein, J. A. (Eds.), Handbook of interview research: Context and method (pp. 3–32). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Gubrium, J. F., & Holstein, J. A. (Eds.). (2002b). Handbook of interview research: Context and method. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Gubrium, J. F., & Holstein, J. A. (2008). Analyzing narrative reality. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. J. (1982). Discourse strategies. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haddix, M. (2008). Beyond sociolinguistics: Towards a critical approach to cultural and linguistic diversity in teacher education. Language and Education, 22, 254–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harré, R., & van Langenhove, L. (1992). Varieties of positioning. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 20, 393–407.Google Scholar
Hatch, J. A. (2002). Doing qualitative research in education settings. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Hawkins, M. (2005). Becoming a student: Identity work and academic literacies in early schooling. TESOL Quarterly, 39, 59–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, D. (2005). Exploring the lives of non-native speaking English educators in Sri Lanka. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 11, 169–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heritage, J. (2005). Conversation analysis and institutional talk. In Fitch, K. L. & Sanders, R. E. (Eds.), Handbook of language and social interaction (pp. 103–147). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Holstein, J. A., & Gubrium, J. F. (1995). The active interview. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holstein, J. A., & Gubrium, J. F. (2003). Active interviewing. In Gubrium, J. F. & Holstein, J. A. (Eds.), Postmodern interviewing (pp. 67–80). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Holstein, J. A., & Gubrium, J. F. (2004). The active interview. In Silverman, D. (Ed.), Qualitative research: Theory, method, and practice (pp. 140–161). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Johnson, G. C. (2006). The discursive construction of teacher identities in a research interview. In de Fina, A., Schiffrin, D., & Bamberg, M. (Eds.), Discourse and identity (pp. 213–232). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, B. (1997). Do ESL teachers have careers? TESOL Quarterly, 31, 681–712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnstone, B. (2008). Discourse analysis (2nd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
King, B. W. (2008). “Being gay guy, that is the advantage”: Queer Korean language learning and identity construction. Journal of Language, Identity, & Education, 7, 1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, K., & Fogle, L. (2006). Bilingual parenting as good parenting: Parents’ perspectives on family language policy for additive bilingualism. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 9, 695–712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, K., & Ganuza, N. (2005). Language, identity, education, and transmigration: Chilean adolescents in Sweden. Journal of Language, Identity, & Education, 4, 179–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kvale, S. (2007). Doing interviews. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kvale, S., & Brinkman, S. (2009). InterViews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Liebscher, G., & Dailey-O'Cain, J. (2009). Language attitudes in interaction. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 13, 195–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mazzei, L. A., & Jackson, A. Y. (2009). The limit of voice. In Jackson, A. Y. & Mazzei, L. A. (Eds.), Voice in qualitative inquiry: Challenging conventional, interpretive, and critical conceptions in qualitative research. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Menard-Warwick, J. (2005). Intergenerational trajectories and sociopolitical context: Latina immigrants in adult ESL. TESOL Quarterly, 39, 165–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, J. (2007). Identity construction in teacher education. In Hua, Z., Seedhouse, P., Wei, L., & Cook, V. (Eds.), Language learning and teaching as social inter-action (pp. 148–162). London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mishler, E. G. (1986). Research interviewing: Context and narrative. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Motha, S. (2006). Decolonizing ESOL: Negotiating linguistic power in U.S. public school classrooms. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 3, 75–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palfreyman, D. (2005). Othering in an English language program. TESOL Quarterly, 39, 211–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pavlenko, A. (2007). Autobiographic narratives as data in applied linguistics. Applied Linguistics, 28, 163–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pennycook, A. (2007). Language, localization, and the real: Hip-hop and the global spread of authenticity. Journal of Language, Identity, & Education, 6, 101–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polkinghorne, D. E. (1995). Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis. In Hatch, J. A. & Wisniewski, R. (Eds.), Life history and narrative (pp. 5–23). London: Falmer Press.Google Scholar
Preston, D. (1994). Content-oriented discourse analysis and folk linguistics. Language Sciences, 16, 285–331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prior, M. (in press). Self-presentation in L2 interview talk: Narrative versions, accountability, and emotionality. Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Rankin, J., & Becker, F. (2006). Does reading the research make a difference? A case study of teacher growth in FL German. Modern Language Journal, 90, 353–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, K. (2003). Qualitative inquiry in TESOL. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, K. (2009). Trends in qualitative research in language teaching since 2000. Language Teaching 42, 147–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, C. R., Davies, E., & Jupp, T. (1992). Language and discrimination: A study of communication in multi-ethnic workplaces. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Roulston, K. (2010). The reflective researcher: Learning to interview in the social sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Sacks, H. (1972). On the analyzability of stories by children. In Gumperz, J. J. & Hymes, D. (Eds.), Directions in sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication (pp. 325–345). New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.Google Scholar
Sacks, H. (1992). Lectures on conversation (Vols. 1– 2). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A., & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50, 696–735.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Sarangi, S. (2003). Institutional, professional, and lifeworld frames in interview talk. In van den Berg, H., Wetherell, M., & Houtkoop-Steenstra, H. (Eds.), Analyzing race talk: Multidisciplinary perspectives on the research interview (pp. 64–84). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sarkar, M., & Allen, D. (2007). Hybrid identities in Quebec hip-hop: Language, territory, and ethnicity in the mix. Journal of Language, Identity, & Education, 6, 117–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, E. A. (2007). Sequence organization in interaction: Vol. 1. A primer in conversation analysis. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schiffrin, D., Tannen, D., & Hamilton, H. E. (Eds.). (2001). The handbook of discourse analysis. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Silverman, D. (2001). Interpreting qualitative data (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Spradley, J. P. (1979). The ethnographic interview. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.Google Scholar
Talmy, S. (2006). The other Other: Micronesians in a Hawai'i high school. In Park, C. C., Endo, R., & Goodwin, A. L. (Eds.), Asian and Pacific American education: Learning, socialization, and identity (pp. 19–49). Greenwich, CT: Information Age.Google Scholar
Taylor, L. (2006). Wrestling with race: The implications of integrative antiracism education for immigrant ESL youth. TESOL Quarterly, 40, 519–544.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, S. (2001). Evaluating and applying discourse analytic research. In Wetherell, M., Taylor, S., & Yates, S. J. (Eds.), Discourse as data: A guide for analysis (pp. 311–330). London: Sage/Open University.Google Scholar
ten Have, P. (2007). Doing conversation analysis: A practical guide (2nd ed.). London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trinh, T. M. (1989). Woman, native, other. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Tsui, A. B. M. (2007). Complexities of identity formation: A narrative inquiry of an EFL teacher. TESOL Quarterly, 41, 657–680.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van den Berg, H., Wetherell, M., & Houtkoop-Steenstra, H. (2003). Analyzing race talk: Multidisciplinary perspectives on the research interview. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Varghese, M. M., & Johnston, B. (2007). Evangelical Christians and English language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 41, 5–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vickers, C. H. (2007). Second language socialization through team interaction among electrical and computer engineering students. Modern Language Journal, 91, 621–640.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, C. A. B. (2002). Qualitative interviewing. In Gubrium, J. F. & Holstein, J. A. (Eds.), Handbook of interview research: Context and method (pp. 83–101). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Warren, C. A. B., & Karner, T. X. (2010). Discovering qualitative methods: Field research, interviews, and analysis (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wooffitt, R. (2005). Conversation analysis and discourse analysis: A comparative and critical introduction. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wooffitt, R., & Widdicombe, S. (2006). Interaction in interviews. In Drew, P., Raymond, G., & Weinberg, D. (Eds.), Talk and interaction in social research methods (pp. 28–49). London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar