Interviews and observation

1. Week 7 special needs in TESOL Interviews and observation

2. Interviews

3. What is Interview • A kind of conversation; a conversation with a purpose (Robson, 1993).

4. Why need Interviews? • To obtain research-relevant information, (Cannell and Kahn, 1968). • Help to find out from people those things which cannot be directly observed.

5. Why?Kerlinger (1970) suggests 1)to follow up unexpected results, 2)to validate other methods, 3)to go deeper into the motivations of respondents and 4) their reasons for responding as they do.

6. 1)to follow up unexpected results, Discrepancy between survey data, observed behaviour, and test results.

7. 2)to validate other methods, • From the observation the person’s behavior is seen as very aggressive.

8. 3)to go deeper into the motivations of respondents • Observation tells some people did not or did actively participated. • Interviews ask the reasons for such a behavior.

9. 4) their reasons for responding as they do. • EO’s case. • Discrepancy between Learners’ survey results and classroom observation

11. Types of interview • Structured interviews = Formal • Semi- Structured interviews = Semi • Unstructured interviews = Informal

12. Structured interviews • Structured interviews have an accurate form and direction of the questioning determined in advance of actually meeting for the interview.

13. Unstructured interviews, • There is no prepared list of questions. The interviewer is free to ask questions depending on the information received from the informant.

14. semi-structured format • A combination of these two forms, which is called a, is probably the most successful approach to use in interviewing.

15. Hierarchical focusing interview 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 conversation flow as the topic may be covered in responses to earlier questions even though both hierarchical and structured interviews determine the aims and required information to be gathered.

16. 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 questions in terms of comfort, speech, confidence and getting familiar with the interviewer.

20. 1. Research questions • You have to make very clear research questions • The effect of self esteem on person’s behavior. • RQ 1: Do the levels of self esteem affect on one’s behavior? • RQ 2: How much does one’s parents’ parenting style affects one’s self esteem establishment? • RQ 3: How much do peers affect on one’s self esteem establishment?

21. Problems of interview data • Invalidity. (Lansing, Ginsberg and Graaten, 1968), • the cause of invalidity is bias which they define 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).

22. Researchers can mis-interpret the answers • One way of validating interview measures is to compare the interview 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.

23. Use of different kinds of interviews • (informal/formal interviews, one to one/ one to group) at different times and places.

24. The advantage of group interviewing • it collects people’s varied opinions and it is less intimidating for children than individual interviews (Cohen and Manion, 2000).

25. Physical requirement of a group interview • The physical layout of the room to be not too big or small, so that everyone 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.

26. 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 dominated the opinions of others during the group interviews

27. 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

28. Observation

29. ‘live’ data from the ‘live’ situations • Observation is a research instrument that allows researchers to gather ‘live’ data from the ‘live’ situations and in which the investigator systematically watches, listens and records the phenomenon of interest.

30. To validate or corroborate the information • Observation is used to validate or corroborate 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 complementary research questions rather than focusing on a single specific research question

31. Tells the discrepancy • This information will provide the data that will tell the researcher the discrepancy between what is said by the interviewees and their actual behaviour

32. Participant observations • An advantage of participant observations is that you can collect more detailed data than with any other research method (Burgess, 1984). • A disadvantage could be that the observer when participating in the situation too much cannot find any time to write down the events on the spot (Robson, 1993).

33. 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 natural 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 observe the class without being noticed by the observants. If it is a children’s classroom, not being involved might be particularly difficult.

34. Informal approaches • Informal approaches allow the observer considerable freedom in gathering the data. • Note-taking and diary-keeping as tools.

35. Formal approaches • Tend to have very pre-specified aspects. • High reliability and validity can be easily achieved • But at the cost of a loss of complexity and completeness by comparison with the informal approach (Robson, 1993).

36. Tally mark in observation

40. Advantages vs Disadvantages • Unstructured observation, the researcher will always have some assumptions in his/her mind which will influence what he/she observes. • Highly structured observation, the researcher may miss other interesting and relevant data.

41. Semi-structured observation • have some themes and rough categories in mind to focus on in collecting the data.

42. 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?

43. The limitations of semi structured observation • It seriously limits and restricts the observer’s perceptions and • 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 observer sees only those types of behaviour that coincide 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).

44. Observation techniques • descriptive field-notes as well as audiotaped recordings.

45. Task 2 • Watch the video and select one student to observe • Group A & B select Tally mark formal observation • Group C & D Select Descriptive semi focused observation skill • Summarize your findings • Two groups of the same observation type discuss the findings • Select the better one • Do the presentation about advantages and disadvantages.

46. When to do what?

47. Mid-term Guideline • Introduction: • Literature Review • Methodology • Results • Discussion • Conclusion • References • Appendix.

48. Introduction • The map of the paper • Background of your research. • Why you are interested in this research • Research questions • Research Methods you used • Summary of your findings

49. Literature review • Literature that are relevant to your research. • Specific areas of Psychology that are directly relevant to your RQs

50. Methodology • You have to describe about the subject. • 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 supportive for your research.