Interview
Interviews are conversations or debates on a certain topic, which usually take place face to face and in person, even though contemporary communication technologies, such as Skype, enable conversations to happen by video-conferencing systems. Interviews are often taped and later transcribed or at least interpreted, allowing the interview to proceed unimpaired of note-taking, but with all information available later for full analysis. There are different kinds of interviews, ranging from structured to open interviews. A common type is a semi-structured interview, where the interviewer develops and uses a certain protocol, i.e. a list of questions and topics that need to be covered during the conversation, usually in a particular order. The interviewer and the interviewee then follow the protocol but are also able to stray from the original structure of questions. When carrying out interviews, it is advisable to be ready for improvisation and permitting a detour from the interviewing protocol, since an interview can be understood as a journey of discovery, which constantly produces its own new questions. Serendipity and happenstance [1] [2] should therefore be taken into account in each interview, even (or especially) if the debate leads to uncharted territory.
Exercise
One of the established ways of opening up the interview process to serendipity and free association is to conduct semi-structured or even unstructured interviews, in which the interviewer poses only one or two questions and encourages the interviewee to speak freely. Eliciting narratives and refraining from interrupting them is a skill acquired with practice and the aid of certain techniques. The following exercise is based loosely on the first stage of the BNIM (Biographic-Narrative Interpretative Method) and centres on having the interviewer pose one, open-ended question. This exercise can be done among students, with them taking turns in different roles, or they may choose an interlocutor outside the class.
1. Setting the stage. First, the interviewer explains in simple terms that the interview is a narrative interview: that they will have only one question, which the interviewee can take as long as they wish to answer: that they can include anything they consider important to the question and can go into as much detail as they wish. The interviewee should assure that the interviewer will not interrupt. This preamble is important because people often go into an interview with certain expectations, the biggest of them being that the interviewer is in charge of the conversation and will be posing all the questions. The unstructured interview shifts the control of the interview to the interviewee.
2. Pose an open question. The interviewer must pose questions that will not elicit one- or two-word answers (such as "What is your favourite colour" or "Where do you keep your computer at home?") but that encourage the interviewer to speak freely about a given topic. The BNIM method is employed most often to elicit life stories ("Please tell me your life story"). However, one can pose different sorts of questions to elicit narratives ("How is it that you became a doctor?" or "Please tell me what a typical day in the office is like for you").
3. Encourage your interlocutor to keep talking - verbal and non-verbal cues. During an interview, the interviewer should listen attentively and take brief notes - even if the interview is being recorded. While the interviewer is not encouraging her or his interlocutor to speak by posing more questions, whenever a lull occurs, she can prompt the interviewee to nod, maintaining eye contact and offering affirmative verbal cues (yes, uh-huh) or repeating the last words a person said. Most importantly, the interviewer should not fill in silences, even though they seem awkward or the interviewee appears to seek guidance. If the interviewee looks to the interviewer for assurance, then the latter can offer words of encouragement such as “please do go on”.
4. Ask for final thoughts. The interviewee will offer some sort of verbal or non-verbal sign that they have concluded their narrative. At this point, the interviewer may ask their interlocutor if they have any final thoughts on the question.
5. Write up the interview experience. After completing the interview, write up your experience from your point own perspective (interviewer/interviewee). Note how you felt during your role, where you felt that you had problems in maintaining your role, how you felt about the role of your counterpart. This is a moment of self-reflection that will help you assess how you did and how to improve your technique.
6. Switch roles. In a practice exercise between learners on the conclusion of the first interview, the interviewer and interviewee should switch roles.
