We Want to Offer You Options: How Might Language Choices (Re)Shape the Interview?

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Eight
  In Roundtable Session: Interrogating Approaches to Qualitative Data (Table 14)

Abstract

Responding to this year’s call on what is ‘truth’ and who decides it, this study starts with the fundamental question of ‘which/who’s language to use in cross-language research, how, and why that influences qualitative research. Voices from our international student participants on their preferred language(s) for the interview (re)shaping their narratives lead to the preliminary conclusions that: (1) without substantial differences in the main storyline, language competency matters in terms of the number of details given and how the stories are told; (2) historical understandings and cultural norms of the chosen language are implicitly assumed as shared with the interviewer and with participants' reference community. Thus, the shared details, the narrative style, and the researcher-participant interaction are influenced.

Authors

• Pei-Jung Li, Indiana University
  Presenting Author

• Dorcas Xingqing Miao, Indiana University
  Presenting Author