Transcript Technique Isn’t Everything, But It Is a Lot

Technique Isn’t Everything,
But It Is a Lot
9310009A Jessie
9310047A Doris
9310049A Annie
Listen More, Talk Less
Listening is the most important skill in
interviewing.
The hardest work for most interviewers is
to keep quiet and to listen actively.
 Interviewers must listen on at least 3 levels:
1. listen to what the participant is saying
2. listen to the “inner voice”
3. listen while remaining aware of the process
and the substance ― like a good teacher

Help interviewer in active listening:
a. tape recording
b. take notes
the function of take notes:
1. help interviewers concentrate on what
the participant is saying
2. keep interviewers from interrupting the
participant

Follow up on what the participant says
Follow up-additional remark or footnote
1.There are three things that interviewers
should do:
a. ask for clarification
b. seeks concrete details
c. request stories
2. interviewer’s basic work in the process of
interviewing:
a. listen actively
b. move the interview forward as much as
possible
what the participant has begun to share
Ask Questions When You Do Not
Understand
1.
unclear
a. context, specific referent, chronology
2.
slide means ignore or skip
a. slide may decrease interviewers’
understanding about the context in the
process of interview.
 interviewers might miss the significant
part
3. ask questions
a. respect your participants
 let participants know you’re
concentrate on what they say
b. use vague words
Ex:
Q: How do you feel about the online
grammar learning website?
Participant: It’s so so!
ask a further question: What is so so?
In order to get more details from your
participant’s experience
ASK TO HEAR MORE ABOUT A
SUBJECT

→interviewers get generalities, want to get more
information from participants

→interviewers are interested in participant’s
story
EXPLORE, DON’T PROBE



Using word ”probe” could make participants
feel uncomfortable
Ill-timed words make participants defensive or
shift the meaning
Little exploration
→make interviewers unsure participants’ real
meaning
→let participants use abstractive words
LISTEN MORE, TALK LESS, AND ASK REAL
QUESTIONS
Real Questions
→ interviewers cannot expect the response from
participants
AVOID LEADING QUESTIONS
Intonation→ implies the expectations
EX. What was your student teaching placement like
for you?
→ How satisfied were you with your student teaching
placement?
ASK OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS
1. Grand tour
→ask participant to reestablish a specific
part of an experience
Mini-tour
→ask participant to reestablish the detail of
a limited time of an experience
2. More focus on participant’s subjective experience
FOLLOW UP, DON’T INTERRUPT
→ jot down the key words then follow up later
ASK PARTICIPANTS TO TALK TO YOU AS IF
YOU WERE SOMEONE ELSE
→a step to get familiar with participant
→use role-playing way
ASK PARTICIPANTS TO TELL A STORY
→what participants are discussing
→to describe participants‘ experience concretely
→have a memorable meaning

CANNOT use this way too much
KEEP PARTICIPANTS FOCUSED AND ASK
FOR CONCRETE DETAILS
* Before exploring attitudes and opinions
Do Not Take the Ebbs and Flows of
Interviewing too Personally



First: engrossed and share a lot of
experiences
Second: pull back
Third: share within a zone that participants
are comfortable
Share Experiences on Occasion

sharing interviewer’s experiences may
encourage participants

overused → 1. distort interview
2. distract participants
Ask Participants to Reconstruct, Not to
Remember

Don’t ask participants if they remember
something.
→avoid impediments to memory

Reconstruct experiences
Avoid Reinforcing your Participants’
Responses

avoid reinforcing participants’ saying
→avoid short affirmative response

refer what participant said later in the
interview
Explore Laughter

Participants’ laughter →worth for interviewer
to explore
EX. self-evidently funny, nervous or ironic
Follow Your Hunches

follow hunches →
Try to ask what you think and difficult
questions when you have doubt.
→may get different result
Use an Interview Guide Cautiously

Interview guide →
Interviewers present questions that follow
from what participants had said

raise questions that reflect areas of interest

avoid manipulating

avoid imposing
Tolerate Silence

participants’ silence
→ follows a question
→ within reconstruction

tolerate silence
→ heard things that would never have heard
Conclusion

effective question
→concentrated listening
→interested in what is being said
→purpose in moving forward

Interviewers must have interest in
participants
→foundation to learn interview techniques