interviews and observation

Interviews and obser-vation

Week 7 special needs in TESOL

Inter-views

What is Interview

A kind of conversation; a conversa-tion with a purpose (Robson, 1993).

Why need Interviews?

To obtain research-relevant informa-tion, (Cannell and Kahn, 1968).

Help to find out from people those things which cannot be directly ob-served.

Why?Kerlinger (1970) suggests

1)to follow up unexpected results, 2)to validate other methods, 3)to go deeper into the motivations of

respondents and4) their reasons for responding as they

do.

1)to follow up unexpected results,

Discrepancy between survey data, ob-served behaviour, and test results.

2)to validate other methods,

From the observation the person’s behavior is seen as very aggressive.

3)to go deeper into the mo-tivations of respondents Observation tells some people did

not or did actively participated. Interviews ask the reasons for such a

behavior.

4) their reasons for respond-ing as they do. EO’s case. Discrepancy between Learners’ sur-

vey results and classroom observa-tion

Types of interview

Structured interviews = Formal Semi- Structured interviews = Semi Unstructured interviews = Informal

Structured interviews

Structured interviews have an accur-ate form and direction of the ques-tioning determined in advance of ac-tually meeting for the interview.

Unstructured interviews,

There is no prepared list of ques-tions. The interviewer is free to ask questions depending on the informa-tion received from the informant.

semi-structured format

A combination of these two forms, which is called a, is probably the most successful approach to use in interviewing.

Hierarchical focusing inter-view method (Tomlinson, 1989)

Advantages The hierarchical interview provides the

interviewer flexibility to change the wording or makes it possible to eliminate some questions in line with the conver-sation flow as the topic may be covered in responses to earlier questions even though both hierarchical and structured interviews determine the aims and re-quired information to be gathered.

open-ended questions starting with general questions and gradually

moving to more specific questions with the aim of getting points the interviewer needs to address in the study (Drever, 1995).

Starting with general questions allows the nervous interviewees to settle down and prepares them for the further specific ques-tions in terms of comfort, speech, confidence and getting familiar with the interviewer.

1. Research questions You have to make very clear research ques-

tions The effect of self esteem on person’s behav-

ior. RQ 1: Do the levels of self esteem affect on

one’s behavior? RQ 2: How much does one’s parents’ parent-

ing style affects one’s self esteem establish-ment?

RQ 3: How much do peers affect on one’s self esteem establishment?

Problems of interview data

Invalidity. (Lansing, Ginsberg and Graaten, 1968),

the cause of invalidity is bias which they de-fine as ‘ a systematic or persistent tendency to make errors in the same direction, that is, to overstate or understate the ‘ true value’ of an attribute’.

That is researchers can lead the interviewee to provide the answer which the researcher wants instead of the interviewees providing their own ideas (Robson, 1993).

Researchers can mis-inter-pret the answers One way of validating interview

measures is to compare the inter-view measure with another measure that has already been shown to be valid (Cohen and Manion, 1995), a form of triangulation.

Another way of ensuring reliability and cutting down on interviewer bias is by using hierarchical focusing.

Use of different kinds of in-terviews (informal/formal interviews, one to

one/ one to group) at different times and places.

The advantage of group in-terviewing it collects people’s varied opinions

and it is less intimidating for children than individual interviews (Cohen and Manion, 2000).

Physical requirement of a group interview The physical layout of the room to be

not too big or small, so that every-one can see everyone.

A group of around six or seven is an optimum size for the children around age 10, though it can be smaller for younger children.

The disadvantages of group interviews, the responses to questions from

some group members only might be followed up, ignoring others.

a boy and a girl who always domin-ated the opinions of others during the group interviews

Task 1

Divide the group into four Each group takes one role from the

story ‘the three little pigs and the wolf’

Each group think about research questions and interview questions

Make research questions Take one person to ask questions

Observa-tion

‘live’ data from the ‘live’ sit-uations Observation is a research instrument

that allows researchers to gather ‘live’ data from the ‘live’ situations and in which the investigator sys-tematically watches, listens and records the phenomenon of interest.

To validate or corroborate the information Observation is used to validate or cor-

roborate the information obtained in teachers’ and students’ interviews and evaluation of teachers’ use of material. So it can be used as a supportive or supplementary data technique. It helps to address different but comple-mentary research questions rather than focusing on a single specific research question

Tells the discrepancy

This information will provide the data that will tell the researcher the dis-crepancy between what is said by the interviewees and their actual be-haviour

Participant observations

An advantage of participant observa-tions is that you can collect more de-tailed data than with any other re-search method (Burgess, 1984).

A disadvantage could be that the ob-server when participating in the situ-ation too much cannot find any time to write down the events on the spot (Robson, 1993).

Non- participant observation

The researcher sitting at the back of a classroom coding up frequently (Cohen and Manion, 1994).

To be a real non-participant observer in the nat-ural settings might be very difficult unless the observer can be an invisible person or have a separate detached room with a glass between the two rooms where the observer could ob-serve the class without being noticed by the ob-servants. If it is a children’s classroom, not be-ing involved might be particularly difficult.

Informal approaches

Informal approaches allow the ob-server considerable freedom in gathering the data.

Note-taking and diary-keeping as tools.

Formal approaches

Tend to have very pre-specified as-pects.

High reliability and validity can be easily achieved

But at the cost of a loss of complex-ity and completeness by comparison with the informal approach (Robson, 1993).

Tally mark in observationBehavioural categories Tally MarksMove around the classroom IIII

Do not say anything IIII IIII

Aggressive Responds

Advantages vs Disadvan-tages Unstructured observation, the re-

searcher will always have some as-sumptions in his/her mind which will influence what he/she observes.

Highly structured observation, the researcher may miss other interest-ing and relevant data.

Semi-structured observation

have some themes and rough cat-egories in mind to focus on in collect-ing the data.

Examples of focused items for semi structured observation

How does the student respond to the questions?

Does S/he move around the classroom during lessons?

Does s/he emotionally react to the embarrassing moments?

Does s/he actively involved in group activities?

The limitations of semi struc-tured observation1. It seriously limits and restricts the observer’s per-

ceptions and 2. It tends to treat classroom language as discrete

and isolated instances of verbal behaviour rather than extended discourse.

It creates a kind of tunnel vision because the ob-server sees only those types of behaviour that co-incide with the categories in the observation scheme. This restriction, it is claimed, “results in a failure to observe other behaviour that may be equally important features of the teaching and learning environment” (Spada, 1994, p. 686).

Observation techniques

descriptive field-notes as well as au-diotaped recordings.

Task 2 Watch the video and select one student to ob-

serve Group A & B select Tally mark formal observation Group C & D Select Descriptive semi focused ob-

servation skill Summarize your findings Two groups of the same observation type discuss

the findings Select the better one Do the presentation about advantages and dis-

advantages.

When to do what?Research Questions

InterviewSemi formal

ObservationDescriptive

InterviewsFocused but

informal

ObservationFocused

Mid-term Guideline

1. Introduction: 2. Literature Review

3. Methodology4. Results

5. Discussion6. Conclusion7. References8. Appendix.

Introduction

The map of the paper Background of your research.Why you are interested in this re-

search Research questions Research Methods you used Summary of your findings

Literature review

Literature that are relevant to your research.

Specific areas of Psychology that are directly relevant to your RQs

Methodology

You have to describe about the sub-ject.

Who the person (age, gender, etc)Reasons for selecting the person

(behavioral problem?) Methods (interview, observation, etc)

you used for the research. With reasons, how these are support-

ive for your research.

Results

Describe the results following re-search methods

Findings from Each research method should be explained in a separate section.

You don’t have to think of RQs

Discussion

Every findings should be discussed according to your RQs

To explain about RQ1, you should use the findings of interview and ob-servation

n

Research Questions

Sample Instruments

RQ1 Sisa materials Evaluation

RQ2 Teachers InterviewObservation

RQ3 Students Interview Observation

RQ4 Students Interview ObservationTask oral based test

Conclusion

Your overall findings from the re-search.

You can use references in order to back up your arguments.

References

You have to use APA style.

Appendix

You should include interview ques-tions

Observation data