Interviews: Considerations and Techniques

Abstract

Interviews are acknowledged in the current literature in applied linguistics as one of the most popular tools to collect data. Although interviews can be used to gather quantitative data, they are prone to qualitative data. An interview commonly includes at least one interviewer and at least one interviewee or respondent. The interviewer prepares a set of questions about a particular topic to elicit information from the interviewee about their experiences of an occurrence, opinions about an event or phenomenon, and/or suggestions. This chapter mainly presents issues in qualitative interviews. It first discusses the rationale before presenting the advantages and disadvantages of interviews. Then, types of interviews are outlined with their specific purposes and characteristics. Interview techniques are then discussed alongside the considerations in each technique. Guidelines for developing an interview scheme and protocol are presented. Finally, ethical considerations regarding qualitative interviews are discussed