Communicative Listening in the Language Laboratory Nani Tiono Abstract Language laboratory actually is advantageous for ESL teaching-learning process. In the language lab, students can improve their language skill, especially their listening skill, since most of the activities done there deal with listening comprehension. However, ESL students often feel bored when they study at the language lab because they only do monotonous activities there. Thus, teacher should make a lively lab atmosphere through interactive listening; that is, by creating communicative listening tasks for the students. Through this communicative listening tasks, students will not only listen, but also interact with either the teacher or the other students so that they feel as if they do the real life listening. These communicative listening tasks will also help students to improve both their proficiency in language components (vocabulary and pronunciation) and in language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). Keywords: communicative listening, components of communicative competence, grammatical competence, strategic competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence. In such non English speaking countries as in Indonesia, language lab has an important role in ESL teaching – learning process. The language lab is often used for conducting teaching – learning activities, especially for speaking and listening activities. Since students are still learning, they must get the right model of pronunciation which is ideally given by an English native speaker so that later, hopefully, students are able to produce the right English sounds. However, it often happens that the teacher is a non native speaker who sometimes does not realize that he/she gives incorrect stresses, intonation or pronunciation. Even if the teacher is an excellent one, he/she sometimes make errors in pronunciation because English is not his/her mother tongue. This problem can be solved through the use of the orthophonic device in the language lab. By using authentic recorded materials, spoken by different native speakers, the teacher can show the students “the near – ideal pronunciation of native speakers” (Huebener, 1967, p.13) and the different dialects. Besides, through listening to the recorded conversation, students will become accustomed to listening to different kinds of voices, such as male and female, old and young, coarse and fine which can always be found in real life listening. Therefore, students will not just listen to a single voice, the teacher’s voice, like in a traditional classroom. In his book, Huebener wrote ”the language lab can accomplish that which the ordinary classroom cannot. The use of orthoponic devices increases the quality and the quantity of the students’ performance” (p.112); thus, through the language lab equipment, teachers can help ESL learners to improve their Volume 3, Number 2, December 2001: 73 – 82 Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Kristen Petra http://puslit.petra.ac.id/journals/letters/ 74 mastery of the English skills they learn. However, instead of the advantages of using language lab for teaching – learning a second language as mentioned above, some teachers still find it is difficult to get the benefits of using the language lab. These teachers fail to create a lively atmosphere in the language lab. It often happens that students

only get monotonous activities such as listening to the tape, repeating the sounds they hear or just answering some listening comprehension questions which they cannot do since they do not understand what they have heard. As a result, language lab is not a pleasant place to study, or it is only as a place to get cool air since it is airconditioned. Students might feel bored and reluctant to do their activities in the language lab so that they neither improve their performance nor their competence. Since listening might take the biggest portion of language lab activities, teachers should create communicative listening tasks that can help students improve both their language performance and competence. Though the main activities done in a language lab is listening, it cannot be denied that effective listening is interwoven with the other language skills so that good communication can be established. When an ESL student listens effectively, he/she will do communicative listening. He/she is not just a passive listener, but he/she actively takes part in the interaction as well. He/she would try to interpret what he/she has heard based on his/her background knowledge and his/her purpose in listening. Therefore, he/she would do the process of decoding in his/her mind. What is stored in his/her mind is the meaning, rather than the linguistic form, of the information or message he/she has heard. Therefore, to be able to decide what communicative listening tasks to be given to students, a teacher should know how the listening skill is related to the four components of communicative competence: grammatical competence, strategic competence, sociolinguistic competence and discourse competence. The first component of communicative competence related to the listening skill is grammatical competence. Canale and Swain wrote that grammatical competence is very important because if somebody does not have the grammatical competence or does not master the grammar rules, he/she will not be able to use the language lab meaningfully (Canale et al., 1980, pp. 1-47). “Grammatical competence reflects knowledge of the linguistic code itself. It includes knowledge of vocabulary and rules of word formation, pronunciation, spelling and sentence formation” (Scarcella et al., 1992, p. 71). In other words, grammatical competence includes the ability to understand all aspects of language dealing with vocabulary and mechanics as well as with morphology and syntax. The word ‘mechanics’ in grammatical competence relates to basic sound of letters and syllables, pronunciation of words, intonation, and stress in listening. Therefore, in order to understand what is heard, a person needs to understand and apply the rules of morphology and syntax; he/she should recognize the words heard and understand language mechanics that refer to natural pauses, stress and intonation. The second component of communicative competence related to listening skill is strategic competence. Scarcella et al., 1992 wrote that “strategic competence refers to the mastery of the communication strategies that may be called into action either to enhance the effectiveness of communication due to limiting factors in actual communication or to insufficient competence in one or more of the other components of communicative competence” (p. 72). Thus, by using the strategic competence,

a person will act as if he understands the conversation he/she has with other person, although actually he/she does not. He/she might use the strategies such as topic shifts to avoid the conversation topic for which he lacks vocabulary to talk about, attention getters (for example: Hey! Look!) or pause fillers (um, let’s see!). In listening, strategic competence Communicative Listening in the Language Laboratory (Nani Tiono) Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Kristen Petra http://puslit.petra.ac.id/journals/letters/ 75 is very important since it involves guessing the meaning of unknown words, terms or expressions heard during the conversation. The listener might use any clues that he/she can catch such as his/her background knowledge, his/her linguistic clues, etc for guessing the meaning of expressions he/she does not know. For an ESL learner, guessing in listening is important so that the learner will not have the false idea that he/she should know the meaning of every single word if he/she wants to understand the overall meaning of an utterance. When a person is listening, he/she would “test out hypotheses” through “guessing from context clues” (p. 142); while guessing is actually important for hypothesis testing and comprehension monitoring. Therefore, guessing, which includes guessing the meaning of unknown words and guessing what would come next in the conversation, is very important in listening so that communication can progress smoothly. However, when it turns out that the guessing or the predictions are wrong, the listener should readjust differences and shift to a new hypothesis. To be able to make testing and adjusting hypotheses, the listener should have a high capacity of monitoring his/her own comprehension; that is, comprehension monitoring. Sociolinguistic competence is the other communicative competence that relates to listening skill. ”Sociolinguistic competence involves knowing what is expected socially and culturally by users of the target language.” (Scarcella et al., 1992, p. 141). By having sociolinguistic competence, a listener would be able to comprehend the purpose of an oral communication. He/she would “listen between the lines” and adjust himself/herself to the social and cultural norms of the speaker so that he/she is able to find the speaker’s purpose, to know the right time to comment, to ask questions during a discourse and to give appropriate nonverbal answers. Thus, the listener would have an appropriate understanding of the speaker’s intended meaning. Besides the communicative competence above, an ESL listener should have discourse competence in order to grasp the speaker’s idea correctly. Discourse competence deals with the ability to communicate above sentence level; thus, a listener having the discourse competence would apply the rules of cohesion and coherence in communication so that he/she is able to catch the idea of what is being spoken or to predict what will be spoken next. Because of the discourse competence, a listener would become an active listener who would always relate parts of communication to get the right meaning. To describe the relation between the four aspects of communication competence and listening proficiency, we can refer to the following chart. Besides being closely related to the four aspects of

communicative competence, an interactive listening, especially listening to authentic materials, can improve students’ other language skills and elements. In order to grasp the correct meaning of what has been heard, ESL listeners should be able to catch the accurate English sounds that might not be found in their native language. The sound /th/ as in ‘think’ for example, does not exist in Indonesian language. In English, the sound /sh/ as in ‘shall’ would give a different meaning from the sound /s/ as in ‘sell’; therefore, an Indonesian listener should know the differences. Besides the sounds, an ESL listener should also master the English stress and intonation since they are very significant. The stress would differentiate the parts of speech of a word. For example, the word ‘record’ with the stress on the first syllable /`rikôrd/ is a noun, while the same word with the stress on the second syllable/rek¶rd/ is a verb. Intonation would show the speaker’s mood such as “certainty, doubt, irony, inquiry, seriousness, or humor” (Ur, 1984, p.13). Though it cannot be denied that the demand of the listener’s mastery of the English sounds, stress and intonation might become his/her difficulties, at the same time, it would also cause the improvement of his/her pronunciation, and thus, improve his/her speaking skill. Volume 3, Number 2, December 2001: 73 – 82 Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Kristen Petra http://puslit.petra.ac.id/journals/letters/ 76 Grammatical Competence Strategic Competence Grammar – In listening, understanding, Using any and all clues for and applying the rules of morphology and guessing the meaning syntax to understand what is heard. (background knowledge, linguistic Vocabulary – recognizing words that are clues, etc.). heard. Mechanics – using natural pauses, stress, intonation, etc. to help understanding meaning. LISTENING PROFICIENCY Sociolinguistic Competence Discourse Competence Knowing social and cultural expectations Knowing how discourse operates Related to the appropriate use of the new on coherence and cohesion, so as language, and using these expectations as to recognize and understand what a basis for understanding what is heard. is heard in short or extended discourse (above sentence level). The Components Underlying Listening Proficiency (Scarcella et al., 1992, p. 141) Besides being closely related to the four aspects of communicative competence, an interactive listening, especially listening to authentic materials, can improve students’ other language skills and elements. In order to grasp the correct meaning of what has been heard, ESL listeners should be able to catch the accurate English sounds that might not be found in their native language. The sound /th/ as in ‘think’ for example, does not exist in Indonesian language. In English, the sound /sh/ as in ‘shall’ would give a different meaning from the sound /s/ as in ‘sell’; therefore, an Indonesian listener should know the differences. Besides the sounds, an ESL listener should also master the English stress and intonation since they are very significant. The stress would differentiate the parts of speech of a word. For example, the word ‘record’ with the stress on the first syllable /`rikôrd/ is a noun, while the same word with the stress on the second syllable /rek¶rd/ is a verb.

Intonation would show the speaker’s mood such as “certainty, doubt, irony, inquiry, seriousness, or humor” (Ur, 1984, p.13). Though it cannot be denied that the demand of the listener’s mastery of the English sounds, stress and intonation might become his/her difficulties, at the same time, it would also cause the improvement of his/her pronunciation, and thus, improve his/her speaking skill. In listening, a listener also has to make prediction to keep the communication flow. This prediction might depend on the listener’s familiarity with “the clichés, collocations, idioms and proverbs commonly used; for example, “ ‘rosy’ often collocates with ‘cheeks’ or ‘jaded’ with ‘appetite’ ”(p.16). However, sometimes the predictions also depend on choices of vocabulary or grammar; for example, when the listener hears the word ‘but’ or ‘however’, he/she would expect to listen to something contrasted with the previous one. Another example, an introductory clause such as ‘There are two criteria for this’ would show “a corresponding discourse structure to follow” (p.16 ). In short, through Communicative Listening in the Language Laboratory (Nani Tiono) Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Kristen Petra http://puslit.petra.ac.id/journals/letters/ 77 interactive listening, a listener would also improve his/her mastery of syntax and vocabulary, as well as pronunciation; thus, he/she also improves his/her speaking, writing and reading proficiency. As what has been stated before, to avoid boredom in the language lab, the teacher should give ESL learners communicative listening tasks. These communicative tasks are basically meaning-focused tasks that involve the learner to comprehend, produce and / interact in the target language, and the tasks are classified based on their goals, input data, activities, settings, learner role and teacher role. The ‘goals’ are not always explicitly stated, but it can always be seen from the examination of a task. While ‘input’ refers to the data used to form the starting point of communicative task and it can be taken from various sources such as picture stories, bus timetable, extract from a play, and so on. ‘Activities’ refer to what the learners will do with the input forming the starting point of the communicative task. ‘Learner role’ and ‘teacher role’ refer to the part the learner or the teacher has to play in doing the learning tasks. Learner role actually depends on the teacher’s function, such as whether he/she functions as a guide, a consultant or a director. ‘Settings’ refer to the classroom arrangements used in the task; therefore, the setting of communicative listening refers to the language laboratory arrangements. Since each student in the language lab should listen to recorded materials or sometimes record his/her own voice, the students are bound to sit on their own booth, but they still can work together with the others just by moving their seats that are usually wheeled chairs or portable chairs. Based on Nunan (1989), there are three main activity types that stimulate interactive language use. The first is information–gap activity. This activity “involves a transfer of given information from one person to another, or from one place to another – generally calling for the decoding or encoding of information or into language” (p. 66). One of the examples of this type is pair work in which each person in

the pair only has part of the complete information; for example, an incomplete picture. Thus, the pair should communicate to complete the information. The second activity type is reasoning–gap activity. This activity “involves deriving some new information from given information through process of inference, deduction, practical reasoning, or a perception of relationships or patterns (p. 66). This activity needs comprehending and conveying information as the information gap activity; however, the information to be conveyed is not identical with that initially comprehended since there should be reasoning to connect the two pieces of information. An example of this activity is deciding what course of action is best (cheapest and quickest) for a given purpose. The last activity type is opinion – gap activity. It “involves identifying and articulating a personal preference, feeling or attitude in response to a given situation” (p. 66). This activity includes the use of factual information and arguments formulation to defend one’s idea; however, it has no objective procedure to say whether results are right or wrong and each person in the group might give different outcome. The examples of opinion – gap activity are story completion and taking part in social issue discussion. Thus, from the examples of the activity types above, it is clear that the focus of giving communicative listening tasks or activities to an ESL learner is on the ability to use the second language, and not to listen to the language used by others. Besides, the tasks should be reciprocal listening tasks; that is, the tasks should enable the listener to interact with the speaker and the listener can negotiate the content of the interaction. In addition to what has been discussed above, communicative listening tasks given to the students could be taken from authentic materials; that is, materials which are not Volume 3, Number 2, December 2001: 73 – 82 Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Kristen Petra http://puslit.petra.ac.id/journals/letters/ 78 specifically created for the purpose of illustrating or teaching features of the language such as those from radio / TV broadcasts or news program or other listening materials which have similar content as the authentic ones. Besides, the tasks should have the characteristics of good listening activities. In The Tapestry of Language Learning (Scarcella et al., 1992, p. 149), it is stated that a good listening activity has all or most of these characteristics: 1. The listening activity has a real, communicative purpose that is clear to the students. 2. It offers content of personal interest to the listeners. 3. The speaker is visible (in person or on a videotape) rather than invisible (as on an audiotape or on the radio) – unless the purpose is to help students understand audiotapes and radio programs. 4. Listeners are required to respond in some meaningful fashion (for example, saying something, following a command or request, asking a question, or taking notes if it’s a lecture). 5. The listening activity offers many environmental clues to the meaning. 6. Listeners with typical background knowledge are able to understand the topic of the listening activity; no highly specialized background is required, unless the class focuses on English for special purposes (ESP). 7. The listening activity is “normal” for its own particular speech type; that is, a

conversation would have short, redundant, rapid chunks of speech, while a lecture or play might be more formalized and orderly. Since the communicative listening tasks require the listener to interact with the speaker and all the tasks are done in the language laboratory, of course the implementation of these tasks would be easier if the lab facilities or equipments enable students to communicate, either with the other students or with the teacher directly. Usually this kind of lab equipment consists of a master console that has: 1. Distribution switches to enable teacher to direct the recorded program to the selected student booths so that students can work in pairs or in groups. Students in the same group can listen to the same program. 2. Intercom switches to enable a two – way conversation between the teacher and any individual student so that the teacher can correct or comment if necessary. 3. Monitoring switches to enable the teacher to listen to any one student. 4. Group call switch to enable the teacher to give announcements to a certain group while the students in the group are listening to the program / tape. Thus, students are able to listen to both sounds. 5. All call switch to enable the teacher to give announcements to all students, but to stop temporarily the program / tape they are listening to. Besides the different use of the master console above, each student booth should also be equipped with a tape recorder to enable students to record their individual voice to be listened to by their friends or teacher. With the help of the lab facilities mentioned above, the teacher can give students communicative listening tasks. There are several types of communicative listening tasks which need different responses from the learners; each type of the tasks can be done in pairs or in groups. 1. Listen and follow (e.g. listening and following a route on a map or a way to a hidden treasure). 2. Listen and do (e.g. drawing what is described, labeling or ticking). Communicative Listening in the Language Laboratory (Nani Tiono) Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Kristen Petra http://puslit.petra.ac.id/journals/letters/ 79 3. Listen and enjoy (e.g. extending a recorded story and giving an ending to the story). 4. Listen and complete (e.g. jigsaw listening, completing a chart or transcript or time table). 5. Listen and correct (e.g. amend errors in a summary). 6. Listen and comment (e.g. telling what is going on after listening to a series of sounds or noise). 7. Listen and discuss (e.g. discussing and solving a murder mystery) 8. Listen and recall (e.g. retelling the information or story that have been heard). The types of activities above can be given to all levels of students, but the teacher should look for materials with appropriate level of difficulty for each level. In doing the tasks above, the students listen to a recorded material in which each student in the group listens to only part of complete information and discuss with their friends what they have heard to get the answer. For an advanced level, instead of using a recorded story, the students themselves can record their own voice, creating their own story as the material. To avoid communication block when students are doing the listening tasks, the teacher needs to divide the activities into three parts: pre-listening activities, whilelistening activities and post-listening activities. In pre-listening activities, the teacher explains what the

students should do and elicits the needed vocabulary. In whilelistening activities, the students listen and do as what is asked. In post-listening activities, the students check their answers with their friends and the teacher gives the complete answer or text. Below are concrete examples of the communicative listening tasks which include the objectives and the types of activities: Example I: Title: Identifying Objects Type of task: Listen and do (draw) Level: Beginners Objectives: - To enrich the students’ vocabulary related to different kinds of shapes and physical qualities. - To help students practice listening to the description and draw the described object. Activities: v Pre-listening activities: ß The teacher prepares an empty cassette tape on each student’s booth. ß The teacher elicits the vocabulary about shapes (e.g. round, triangle, oval, spiral, etc.), physical qualities (e.g. smooth, rough, flexible, rigid, soft, hard, transparent, translucent, opaque, etc.). ß The teacher explains what the students have to do. Volume 3, Number 2, December 2001: 73 – 82 Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Kristen Petra http://puslit.petra.ac.id/journals/letters/ 80 v While-listening activities: ß Students work in pairs and each of them is given a different object. ß They may not see their friend’s object. ß Each student will record his voice describing his object (e.g. what it is made of, what the shape is, what the color is, etc.). ß After that, the students would change cassette tape and they have to listen to his friend’s recorded description of the object and draw the picture. ß They also have to mention the name of the object if they have found it. v Post-listening activities: ß Students check with their friends whether they have given the correct answer or not. Example II: Title: Looking for a Hidden Treasure Type of Task: Listen and follow Level: Intermediate Objectives: ß To enable students to follow oral directions and locate the directions in the written map provided to them. ß To help students understand oral instruction. Activities: v Pre-listening activities: ß The teacher prepares recorded material for each student’s booth. ß The recording (material) is about a complete story of finding a hidden treasure and is divided into three parts. ß Each student will get only one part of the complete story in his cassette. The material distribution can be as what is illustrated below: Booth: A B C D E F 1. -- -- -- -- -- -- 2. -- -- -- -- -- -- 3. -- -- -- -- -- -- 4. -- -- -- -- -- -- Students on booths A and D will get part I of the recording. Students on booths B and E will get part II of the recording. Students on booths C and F will get part III of the recording. ß The teacher elicits the vocabulary related to the story. ß The teacher reads the names in the map so that the students will not have problems with the names later. ß The teacher explains what the students should do. Communicative Listening in the Language Laboratory (Nani Tiono) Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Kristen Petra http://puslit.petra.ac.id/journals/letters/ 81 Example of the map: v While-listening activities: ß Each student listens to his own recording and makes notes on important details/places. ß Each student tries to relate what he has heard (directions to the location of the hidden treasure) with the map he has. v Post-listening activities: ß Students work together in groups of three; each student in

the group has listened to different parts of the story (e.g. student A listened to part I, student B listened to part II, and student C listened to part III). ß Each student in the group explains to the members of his group about what he has heard and what he can conclude. ß The group should find / locate the hidden treasure in the provided map. ß The teacher discusses the answers with the whole students in class. As a conclusion, language laboratory actually is essential for teaching ESL students. With the support of a well-equipped language lab, well-planned communicative listening tasks and an experienced teacher, students will be stimulated to learn ESL in the language laboratory. Hopefully, they can get satisfying improvements both in their language performance and language competence. References Anderson, A. and Lynch, T. (1988). Language teaching. A scheme for teacher education. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press Brown, H. D. (1994). Teaching by principles an interactive approach to language pedagogy. New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents. N Volume 3, Number 2, December 2001: 73 – 82 Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Kristen Petra http://puslit.petra.ac.id/journals/letters/ 82 Canale, M. and Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communication approaches to 2nd language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics, 1 (1), 1-47. Dakin, J. (1979). The language laboratory and language learning. London: Longman Group Ltd. Ely, P. (1984). Bring the lab back to life. New York: Pergamon Press. Geddes, M. and Sturtridge, G. (1982). Listening links. London: Heinemann Educational books Ltd. Huebener, T. (1967). Audio – visual techniques in teaching foreign language. London: London Press Limited. Nunan, D. (1989). Designing tasks for the communicative classroom. Australia: Cambridge University Press. Nunan, David. (1991). Language teaching methodology: A textbook for teachers. UK: Prentice Hall International Ltd. Scarcella, R.C. and Oxford, R.L. (1992). The tapestry of language learning. USA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers. Stack, E.M. (1971). The language laboratory and modern language teaching. USA: Oxford University Press; Inc. Ur, P. (1984). Teaching listening comprehension. New York: Cambridge University Press.

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Home > Vol 7, No 4 (2006) > OpdenakkerVolume 7, No. 4, Art. 11 – September 2006

Advantages and Disadvantages of Four Interview Techniques in Qualitative Research

Raymond Opdenakker

Abstract: Face-to-face interviews have long been the dominant interview technique in the field of qualitative research. In the last two decades, telephone interviewing became more and more common. Due to the explosive growth of new communication forms, such as computer mediated communication (for example e-mail and chat boxes), other interview techniques can be introduced and used within the field of qualitative research.

For a study in the domain of virtual teams, I used various communication possibilities to interview informants as well as face-to-face interviews. In this article a comparison will be made concerning the advantages and disadvantages of face-to-face, telephone, e-mail and MSN messenger interviews. By including telephone and MSN messenger interviews in the comparison, the scope of this article is broader than the article of BAMPTON and COWTON (2002).

Key words: interviews, computer mediated communication (CMC), face-to-face interview, e-mail interview, MSN messenger interview, telephone interview

Table of Contents1. Introduction

2. Advantages and Disadvantages of the Four Interview Techniques

2.1 Face-to-face interviews: Synchronous communication of time and place

2.2 Telephone interviews: Synchronous communication of time, asynchronous communication of place

2.3 MSN messenger interviews: Synchronous communication of time, asynchronous communication of place

2.4 E-mail interviews: Asynchronous communication of time and place

3. Summary

4. Conclusions

Acknowledgement

References

Author

Citation

 

1. Introduction

KVALE (1983, p.174) defines the qualitative research interview as "an interview, whose purpose is to gather descriptions of the life-world of the interviewee with respect to interpretation of the meaning of the described phenomena". Collecting these descriptions can be done in several ways, of which face-to-face interviews are the most common. Besides Face-to-Face (FtF) interviews, interviewing by telephone is popular too. But also interviewing using the Internet is rising. Due to developments in computer technology, all kinds of computer mediated communication (CMC) tools have been developed. With CMC is meant: a process where messages are electronically transferred from a sender to one or more recipient(s), both in synchronous (in real time) and in

asynchronous (independent from time and place) setting. Examples of tools used for CMC are e-mail and chat boxes (as MSN messenger), which also can be used for interviews. [1]

The experiences with the four mentioned interview techniques were gained during my research of EU funded virtual teams, from which team members were dispersed all over Europe. I tried to conduct as much FtF interviews as possible in the first place, but due to time and financial constraints this was not always possible. Also doing research on virtual teams, where FtF communication has decreased in favour of other forms of communication, paved the way for me to use other interview techniques. Although it would have been likely to establish telephone interviews, not all interviewees were in favour of it. As one interviewee remarked "We can do it (the interview) by an Instant Messaging tool as well. If it takes an hour, I think it will be better and less disturbing for my colleagues". The focus of this research was semi-structured interviews. [2]

In this article four types of interview techniques will be compared: FtF interviews, telephone interviews, MSN messenger interviews, and e-mail interviews. The focus of this article is concentrated on the ways in which the four interview techniques differ from each other, thus highlighting the advantages and disadvantages. Whenever possible, the experiences from my own interviews are mentioned. [3]

2. Advantages and Disadvantages of the Four Interview Techniques

When comparing the four interview techniques, the differences in advantages and disadvantages are on one hand related to their differences on the dimensions synchronous communication in time and/or space and asynchronous communication in time and/or space. Table 1 presents the four interview techniques related to these dimensions.

  Time Place

Synchronous communication FtFMSN messengerTelephone

FtF

Asynchronous communication E-mail E-mailMSN messengerTelephone

Table 1: The four interview techniques divided by synchronous/asynchronous communication in time and/or space [4]

FtF interviews are characterised by synchronous communication in time and place. MSN messenger and telephone interviews are characterised by synchronous communication in time, but asynchronous communication in place. E-mail interviews are characterised as asynchronous communication in time and place. One could argue that MSN messenger and telephone interviews are characterised by synchronous communication in cyberspace. As cyberspace is defined as "the noplace" (MORSE, 1998), communication in a virtual placebrings with it other advantages and disadvantages than communication in a real place, as in FtF interviews. Therefore with synchronous communication of place is meant a real place, and not a virtual place. [5]

On the other hand advantages and disadvantages of the four interview techniques are related to the technology used. [6]

2.1 Face-to-face interviews: Synchronous communication of time and place

As already mentioned, FtF interviews are characterised by synchronous communication in time and place. Due to this synchronous communication, as no other interview method FtF interviews can take its advantage of social cues. Social cues, such as voice, intonation, body language etc. of the interviewee can give the interviewer a lot of extra information that can be added to the verbal answer of the interviewee on a question. Of course the value of social cues also depends on what the interviewer wants to know from the interviewee. If the interviewer is seen as a subject, and as an irreplaceable person, from whom the interviewer wants to know the attitude towards for example the labour union, then social cues are very important. When the interviewer interviews an expert about things or persons that have nothing to do with the expert as a subject, then social cues become less important (EMANS, 1986). On the other hand this visibility can lead to disturbing interviewer effects, when the interviewer guides with his or her behaviour the interviewee in a special direction. This disadvantage can be diminished by using an interview protocol and by the awareness of the interviewer of this effect. [7]

In FtF interviews there is no significant time delay between question and answer; the interviewer and interviewee can directly react on what the other says or does. An advantage of this synchronous communication is that the answer of the interviewee is more spontaneous, without an extended reflection. But due to this synchronous character of the medium, the interviewer must concentrate much more on the questions to be asked and the answers given. Especially when an unstructured or semi structured interview list is used, and the interviewer has to formulate questions as a result of the interactive nature of communication. WENGRAF (2001, p.194) even speaks of "double attention", which means

"that you must be both listening to the informant's responses to understand what he or she is trying to

get at and, at the same time, you must be bearing in mind your needs to ensure that all your questions are liable to get answered within the fixed time at the level of depth and detail that you need". [8]

FtF interviews can be tape recorded, of course with the permission of the interviewee. Using a tape recorder has the advantage that the interview report is more accurate than writing out notes. But tape recording also brings with it the danger of not taking any notes during the interview. Taking notes during the interview is important for the interviewer, even if the interview is tape recorded: (1) to check if all the questions have been answered, (2) in case of malfunctioning of the tape recorder, and (3) in case of "malfunctioning of the interviewer". In one interview I conducted I should have taken notes because I had forgotten to push the "record" button. Another disadvantage of tape recording the interview is the time a transcription of the tape recording consumes. BRYMAN (2001) suggests that one hour of tape takes five to six hours to transcribe. [9]

The synchronous communication of time and place in a FtF interview also has the advantage that the interviewer has a lot of possibilities to create a good interview ambience. In other words the interviewer can make more use of a standardisation of the situation. On the other hand this synchronous communication of time and place can bring with it a lot of time and costs. Interviewing an interviewee in a place some 200 kilometres away will take a whole day, including travelling and interviewing. It can even take more days, when the interviewee is ill and didn't or couldn't reach the interviewer in time to cancel the interview. Also the costs, i.e. travelling costs, can become very high in this way. Doing research by using FtF interviews, which have to be held all over the globe, as for example is the case when doing research in the domain of virtual teams, takes a lot of effort, time and costs, and is therefore almost impossible for one researcher. [10]

The last advantage of this interview method is that termination of a FtF interview is easy, compared to other interview methods. In the interaction between interviewer and interviewee enough clues can be given that the end of the interview is near, for example by shuffling the papers and turning off the tape recorder. An explicit way to terminate the interview is by thanking the interviewee for cooperation and asking him or her if there are further remarks that might be relevant to the topic or the interview process. This can lead to an emergent of a whole new area of information (WENGRAF, 2001). [11]

2.2 Telephone interviews: Synchronous communication of time, asynchronous communication of place

Due to the asynchronous communication of place, one of the advantages of telephone interviewing is the extended access to participants, compared to FtF

interviews. MANN and STEWART (2000) make a distinction in the following categories:

Wide geographical access. People from all over the globe can be interviewed—of course if they have access to telephone or computer. FtF interviewing can be very expensive and takes too much time.

Hard to reach populations. It enables researchers to contact populations that might be difficult to work with on an FtF basis for example mothers at home with small children, shift workers, computer addicts and people with disabilities.

Closed site access. It is a possible means of access to people on sites, which have closed or limited access (such as hospitals religious communities, prisons, the military, and cults).

Sensitive accounts. Some personal issues are so sensitive that participants might be reluctant to discuss them FtF with an interviewer.

Access to dangerous or politically sensitive sites. With telephone, interviewers can interview people living or working in war zones, or sites where diseases are rife, without needing to grapple with the danger—and the bureaucracy—of visiting the area. [12]

Although the interviewer can interview people that are not easy to access, one of the disadvantages of asynchronous communication of place by telephone is the reduction of social cues. The interviewer does not see the interviewee, so body language etc. can not be used as a source of extra information. But social cues as voice and intonation are still available. Although social cues are reduced, enough social cues remain for terminating a telephone interview without a problem. [13]

Another disadvantage of asynchronous communication of place is that the interviewer has no view on the situation in which the interviewee is situated. Because of this the interviewer has lesser possibilities to create a good interview ambience. FtF interviews can make more use of a standardisation of the situation. Due to this lessened possibility to create a standardisation of the situation with telephone an extra disadvantage is that the interviewee can stay "visible" for other employees and managers in the organisation. As I experienced for example the interviewee was called away by his manager, so the interview had to be stopped abruptly. [14]

As in FtF interviews synchronous communication of time implies that interviewer and interviewee can directly react to what the other says. This also leads to the advantage that the interviewee is more spontaneous in his response and does not deliberate too long. But on the other hand, the interviewer has to concentrate much more on the questions that need to be asked and the answers given. [15]

Another advantage of synchronous communication of time concerning telephone interviews is, as in FtF interviews, the interview can be tape recorded. Tape recording a telephone interview depends on the equipment. A speakerphone is recommended (BURKE & MILLER, 2001). As with FtF interview the telephone interview is also time consuming due to the fact that the tape has to be transcribed. [16]

2.3 MSN messenger interviews: Synchronous communication of time, asynchronous communication of place

As with telephone interviews, due to the asynchronous communication of place, one of the advantages of MSN messenger interviewing is the extended access to participants, compared to FtF interviews (COOMBER, 1997). Although the interviewer can interview people that are not easy to access, one of the disadvantages of asynchronous communication of place by MSN messenger is the absence of social cues. The lack of some elements, as intonation, can be filled up with the use of emoticons. Before the users were able to create simple emoticons with a normal keyboard, for example a "smiley" could be made as ": )". Nowadays the keyboard gives the opportunity to create more advanced emoticons "☺". This is also the case with MSN messenger, where professionally developed emoticons can be put straight into a message.

Diagram 1: Examples of emoticons [17]

The emoticons have been culturally stipulated however, and reflect culturally specific meanings. MORRIS (1994) has shown that the same gestures in different cultures have several different meanings. Or also: for the same meanings in different cultures several different gestures can exist. Thus, when the interviewer conducts a MSN messenger interview with an interviewee with another cultural communication style, then the interviewer must pay careful attention to the use of emoticons. It cannot be assumed that these emoticons will be interpreted in a manner as meant by the interviewer. Diagram 2 shows clearly, that emoticons are not universal (AOKI, 1995).

Diagram 2: Comparison between Western and Japanese emoticons. It is notable that strong feelings, like anger, are reflected directly in the USA and Western European culture, whereas the Japanese emoticons reflect more subtle alternatives for these feelings. [18]

It depends of course on the topic of the research, and the questions asked, whether or not the lack of social cues are an advantage (or at least neutral) or a disadvantage. However, when interviewing interviewees from another culture, according to SHACHAF (2005, p.52) "the lack of nonverbal and social cues reduces miscommunication due to cultural diversity".[19]

Asynchronous communication of place has, according to BAMPTON and COWTON (2002, paragraph 18), also the advantage that they "can protect the researcher by offering a degree of anonymity, perhaps through the adoption of an (e-mail) pseudonym. A classic example of the positive effects of anonymity is a study by GERGEN, GERGEN, and BARTON (1973). In this study individuals who met and conversed in a situation where they could not see one another, sitting in the dark, disclosed much more intimate details of their lives and of the self than did those who met and conversed in a lighted room. Indeed, those who were in the darkened condition left the encounter feeling more positively about the other person, compared to a control condition in which people interacted with the lights on. This important phenomenon is called self-disclosure, or "the act of revealing personal information to others" (ARCHER, 1980, p.183). CMC discussions proved to have higher levels of spontaneous self-disclosure than FtF discussions (JOINSON, 2001). And visually anonymous participants

disclosed significantly more information about themselves than non-visually anonymous participants did (JOINSON, 2001). According to SPEARS and LEA (1994, p.435), "under the protective cloak of anonymity users can express the way they truly feel and think". When the topic of research asks for information concerning attitudes etc. from the interviewee, the preference for interviews conducted by MSN messenger is obvious. The chance that the interviewee will give a richer and a socially undesirable answer is higher. [20]

The next advantage of asynchronous communication of place is saving costs and time, because the interviewer does not have to travel to the interviewee. On the other hand, when comparing the different interview techniques concerning the amount of time the interviewitself actually costs, MSN messenger is less favoured. To have a good and in-depth interview by MSN messenger takes about double the time of a FtF interview (MARKHAM, 2004). Meanwhile the concentration of the interviewer and the interviewee can decrease, with negative consequences for the quality of the interview. A possible solution is to have several MSN messengers sessions with the interviewee. The advantages of several sessions are that both the interviewer and the interviewee stay concentrated, and that the interviewer has had the time to overlook the other interviews and come up with additional questions. [21]

Another advantage of asynchronous communication of place by MSN messenger is that disturbing background noises (e.g. when people are working with machinery outside the building) are not recorded. [22]

Asynchronous communication of place can be a disadvantage, because the interviewer has no view on the situation in which the interviewee is situated. Because of this the interviewer has lesser possibilities to create a good interview ambience. Due to this lessened possibility to create a standardisation of the situation, with MSN messenger an extra disadvantage is that the interviewee can stay "visible" for other employees and managers in the organisation. [23]

Beside advantages and disadvantages due to the synchronous communication of time and the asynchronous communication of place, there are also some advantages and disadvantages that find their roots in the technology used. In the first place interviewing with MSN messenger has the advantage that the outcome can directly be downloaded on the computer, so there is no transcription time. But direct recording also brings with it the danger of not taking any notes during the interview. Taking notes during the interview is important for the interviewer, even if the interview is tape recorded, to overlook if all the questions have been answered. This danger is even bigger when interviewing with MSN messenger, because writing in a chat box and taking notes at the same time is more difficult, when one has only two hands. Although not taking notes also has advantages, because "the immediacy of the exchange excites me. I will not have to break my train of thought by having to jot down notes, so the flow of dialogue should be smooth" (POLLOCK, 2004, p.4). [24]

In the second place although miscommunication is not uncommon for all the interview techniques used, which can have its roots in different operationalisations of words, or cultural differences, MSN messenger interviews can have a specific form of miscommunication, when both type at the same time. On the other hand, when one is writing, the other can read this at the bottom of the screen. This reduces the possibility that both are writing at the same time, which could lead to this miscommunication. [25]

In the third place MSN messenger is "dependent on willing and competent access to reliable technology on the part of both researcher and subject" (BAMPTON & COWTON, 2002). Especially when organising an interview with people from other cultures, for example the Arabian culture, this can be a disadvantage. The new technological possibilities and from that resulting communication media are a typically Western (and also oriental: think of Japan) product. Some cultures, like for example Arab cultures have much resistance against the setting-up of such communicative media. Because of this also the use of MSN messenger etc. in this culture is less used. Also there will be differences in cultures with regard to the media preference. One culture swears by e-mail, thus another culture gives the preference to video conferencing and another to FTF communication. [26]

In the fourth place as online interviewing involves at the most basic level the exchange of texts, this way of interviewing may be more suitable for people who type fast, and, depending on the research question, whose personalities come through in the text as clearly as they would in FtF (MARKHAM, 2004). [27]

In the fifth place terminating an interview in MSN messenger can be more difficult, because it can seem very abrupt. [28]

2.4 E-mail interviews: Asynchronous communication of time and place

As with telephone and MSN messenger interviews, one of the advantages of e-mail interviewing, due to asynchronous communication of place, is the extended access to participants, compared to FTF interviews (COOMBER, 1997). And as with using MSN messenger, a disadvantage of using e-mail is the complete lack of social cues. Therefore e-mail interviewing "provides a limited register for communication" (BAMPTON & COWTON, 2002, paragraph 25). Using emoticons, as already discussed in the former paragraph, can diminish the effects of this disadvantage. But the interviewer must always be aware that the use of emoticons is not always appropriate according to the interviewee. As each interviewee has his or her own communication style, the interviewer has to adapt the personal communication style online accordingly (KIVITS, 2005). There are also researchers that warn for an overestimation of the use of emoticons, as "e-mail messages containing emoticons did not generate different interpretations than did messages without emoticons" (WALTHER & D'ADDARIO, 2001, p.342). [29]

Another advantage of asynchronous communication of place is that disturbing background noises are not recorded. E-mail interviewing has of course the extra advantage that the interviewer can formulate the questions, and the interviewee can answer the questions at hisor her own convenience without noise disturbance due to independence of place and time.[30]

Asynchronous communication of place also has the advantage that an e-mail interview can be much cheaper than e.g. a FtF interview, because there are no travelling costs. On the other hand this technique can cost a lot of time. Due to the asynchronous communication of time, the interviewee might have to wait sometimes for days or weeks before he/she answers the questions. This does not only lead to the risk that the interviewee will lose interest in the research, but also to the risk that the interviewee may forget to reply to questions (KIVITS, 2005). Sending reminders at an appropriate time to the interviewee can reduce this problem. [31]

With an e-mail interview, synchronous communication of time is impossible. Although the advantage can be that the interviewee does not hesitate in giving a socially undesirable answer but the chance of a spontaneous answer to a question is smaller, because the interviewee has more time to reflect on the question. And spontaneity can be the basis for the richness of data collected in some interviews. It depends of course on the research questions if this reflective behaviour is a disadvantage or not. On the other hand an e-mail interview has the advantage that the interviewer can take time to respond to the developing dialogue (BAMPTON & COWTON, 2002; KIVITS, 2005). [32]

According to BAMPTON and COWTON (2002, paragraph 7) asynchronous communication of time, as is the nature of an e-mail interview, also has obvious advantages as "busy interviewees do not have to identify a mutually convenient time to talk to each other". Also

"in permitting a lengthy delay between communications, an e-interview gives the interviewee time to construct a response to a particular question. It provides for example the opportunity to find information which might be required, although the researcher then does not know what resources the interviewee has drawn upon" (paragraph 8). [33]

They also remark that "it is possible to interview in a foreign language even if the interviewer is insufficiently fluent for a face-to-face interview" (paragraph 19). A translating tool that can be very useful for conducting these interviews is http://babelfish.altavista.com. Although ELRON and VIGODA (2003, p.330) warn that "(…) the lack of face-to-face social cues results in greater cultural and language barriers". [34]

As with MSN messenger, beside advantages and disadvantages due to the asynchronous communication of time and place, there are also some advantages and disadvantages due to the technology used. In the first place the outcome of an e-mail interview can directly be downloaded on the computer, so there is no transcription time. As BAMPTON and COWTON (2002, paragraph 25) state concerning e-mail interviews: "it offers significant savings in terms of time and financial resources, particularly in relation to the elimination of the need to travel or to transcribe tapes". [35]

In the second place in an e-mail interview it is not necessary to take notes, because the interviewer can always overlook the questions and answers that already have passed before sending new questions to the interviewee (MARKHAM, 2004). [36]

In the third place there is the possibility of continuing to collect data simply because the interviewer can and not because he or she should (MARKHAM, 2004). This could go beyond the research aim. [37]

In the fourth place terminating an interview in e-mail can seem very abrupt. Some e-mail interaction will simply die away. Others will be terminated with good wishes. But according to MANN and STEWART (2000, p.157) "if the interaction is deep and extended there may be difficulties of closure". [38]

3. Summary

Beside face-to-face interview and telephone interview the use of new communication forms such as e-mail and MSN messenger opens new ways for qualitative research workers for data collection. The type of interview technique chosen by the researcher can depend upon the advantages and disadvantages, which are linked to every interview technique. [39]

Using face-to-face interviews for collecting information are preferred, when:

social cues of the interviewee are very important information sources for the interviewer (of course dependent on the research problem);

the interviewer has enough budget and time for travelling, or the interviewees live near the interviewer;

standardisation of the interview situation is important. [40]

Using telephone interviews for collecting information are preferred, when:

social cues of the interviewee are less or not important information sources for the interviewer (of course dependent on the research problem);

the interviewer has a small budget and less time for travelling;

looking for access to people on sites, which have closed or limited access (such as hospitals religious communities, prisons, the military, and cults);

standardisation of the interview situation is not important;

some anonymity is requested. [41]

Using MSN messenger interviews for collecting information are preferred, when:

social cues of the interviewee are not important information sources for the interviewer (of course dependent on the research problem);

the interviewer has a small budget and less time for travelling;

looking for access to people on sites, which have closed or limited access (such as hospitals religious communities, prisons, the military, and cults);

standardisation of the interview situation is not important;

anonymity is requested;

both the interviewer and the interviewee are competent enough in type writing and using (and have access to) computers. [42]

Using e-mail interviews for collecting information is preferred, when:

social cues of the interviewee are not important information sources for the interviewer (of course dependent on the research problem);

the interviewer has a small budget and less time for travelling;

looking for access to people on sites, which have closed or limited access (such as hospitals religious communities, prisons, the military, and cults);

standardisation of the interview situation is not important;

anonymity is requested;

both the interviewer and the interviewee are both competent enough in type writing and using (and have access to) computers;

there is a huge time difference, because interviewer and interviewee live in different parts of the world separated by several time zones, and synchronous interviewing means for one party (interviewer or interviewee) interviewing at night;

It is necessary that the interviewee takes time to respond to the developing dialogue. [43]

4. Conclusions

In summary, all four interview techniques share common principles/basics and can be equally used for conducting interviews in research. Important distinctive criterion is however the nature of the information one wants to obtain, especially the importance of social cues. As already mentioned, if the interviewee is seen as a subject, and as an irreplaceable person, from whom the interviewer wants to have his or her opinion for example about the labour union, then social cues are very important. Interviewing by FtF or by telephone will be more preferred. When the interviewer interviews an expert about things or persons that have nothing to do with the expert, then social cues become less important. For such situations all four interview techniques are appropriate for use. [44]

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Carin CUYPERS (Bureau Lara, the Netherlands) for the German translation of the abstract, and Natalia Martin CRUZ (University of Valladolid, Spain) for the Spanish translation of the abstract.

References

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Burke, Lisa A. & Miller, Monica K. (2001, May). Phone interviewing as a means of data collection: Lessons learned and practical recommendations [30 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research [On-Line Journal], 2(2), Art. 7. Available at: http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/2-01/2-01burkemiller-e.htm [Access: June 5, 2006].

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Elron, Efrat & Eran Vigoda (2003). Influence and political processes in virtual teams. In Cristina B Gibson & Susan G. Cohen (Eds.),Virtual teams that work: creating conditions for virtual team effectiveness (pp.317-334). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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Joinson, Adam N. (2001). Self-disclosure in computer-mediated communication: The role of self-awareness and visual anonymity. European Journal of Social Psychology, 31, 177-192.

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Author

Raymond OPDENAKKER studied labour- and organisation psychology. He is an external PhD candidate at the Eindhoven University of Technology. The title of his PhD research is "The strategic momentum in virtual teams".

Contact:Raymond Opdenakker

Eindhoven University of TechnologyFaculty Technology ManagementPav.R.0.22PO Box 5135600 MB Eindhoven Netherlands

E-mail: R.J.G.Opdenakker@tm.tue.nl

Citation

Opdenakker, Raymond (2006, August). Advantages and Disadvantages of Four Interview Techniques in Qualitative Research [44 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 7(4), Art. 11,http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0604118.

 3. Test According to Brown (2004: 3) a test is a method of measuring a person‟sability; knowledge, or performance in a given domain. The goal in giving the test wasto measure the students‟ achievement in listening comprehension. Tests werepre-test and post-test. Pre-test was given to the students before being taught using clozedictation and post-test was given to the students after being taught using clozedictation. It is aim to know whether the students‟ listening ability improves or not,before and after taught using cloze dictation.To get the valid test, the internal validity and reliability is applied. There werepre-test and post-test which is used to collect the data. Each test contained 30 items.They were 32 of the valid items from 40 items. The test consisted of functional textsrelated to the texts that have been taught to the students.2.Method of Data Analysis

 To examine the level of student‟s participation, this study applied anobservation method to collect the data. Explaining the method to analyze speakingability of the students which the data that collected using pre-test then giving sometreatment and accomplish it in post test, the study adopts the procedure inaccumulating the data according to the formula of single-group called t-test. Theformula is:  ()  ()  √     ̅ ̅ Tobs =  ( )     

 t obs = the degree of comparisonSD = standard deviation = corrected standard deviationN = total samplesThis t-test formula is appropriate to be applied for single-group because it isan exact formula to analyze the data that collected. The advantage of using this t-test formula is that it could focused in one class only so that it will be easier toconcentrate, to view and calculate the effectiveness of use a role plays to increasethe speaking ability of the students. 

 ReferencesUr,P.(1991).Teachinglisteningcomprehension.Cambridge,UK:CambridgeUniversityPr ess.Gilbert,J.B.(1996).Clearspeech2nded.).Cambridge,UK:CambridgeUniversityPress.Rost, M.(1991).Listening action. New York: Prentice-Hall.Celce-Murcia M. 1995. Discourse analysis and the teaching of listening. In G. Cook& B. Seidlhofer (Eds.), Principle and practice in applied linguistics (pp. 363-377).Oxford: Oxford University Press.Saville-Troike, M. (2006). Introducing Second Language

Acquisition. UnitedKingdom: Cambridge University Press.Nunan, David. (2003). Practical English Language Teaching. Singapore: Mc GrawwHill.McErlain, Tricia. (1999). The Nature of Listening: The need for listening in English for Academic Purposes Retrieved on June 15, 2011.Brown, H. Douglas. (2001).Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach toLanguage Pedagogy.New York: Pearson Education.Brown, H. Douglas. (2004).Language Assessment: Principles and ClassroomPractice.New York: Pearson Education.Oller JW. 1979.Language tests at school . London: Longman.Brown, H. Douglas. (2004).Language Assessment: Principles and ClassroomPractice.New York: Pearson Education.Valette, R.M. (1967). The use of the dictee in the French Language Classroom.Modern Language Journal.48, 431-441.http://WhydictationsMeritsandvariationsofdictationsinEnglishlanguageteachingMyEnglishPages.htmhttp://DictationIsitreallyeffectiveforlanguageteaching.htmhttp://TheEffectOfPartialDictationEnglishLanguageEssay.htm  

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