1. Active Listening in Interviews
Stephen Louw
KMUTT PhD programme

2. Interviews in Qualitative Research
Structured vs unstructured vs semi-structured
To elicit rich data through extended responses
Issues arising for the novice researcher:
Covering the required ground
Reacting to unexpected responses
Following the interviewee’s lead
Getting sidetracked
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3. Active listening
Intended to make the speaker feel well listened to, encourage reflection, personal insight and extended responses by:
Responding empathically
Reflecting the speaker’s message
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4. ‘Open’ functions in active listening
Opening
‘Alright, on a completely different note, how would you describe a good teacher?’
Probing
‘Let’s talk more about the trainee, what do you think the trainee gets from the feedback session?’
Paraphrasing
‘So sometimes during the feedback you say ‘how do you think it went’ and one of them may say ‘I think it was terrible’. Do you use that as a lead in for what comes next?’
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5. ‘Focusing’ functions in active listening
Evaluating
‘I’m interested in this concept of good feedback. Can you define what bad feedback is?’
Clarifying
‘And is that when you start your feedback?’
Repeating
‘Be ‘self-critical’?’
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6. Functions in active listening
Opening
Alright, on a completely different note…
Probing
Let’s talk more about …
Paraphrasing
So let me check I have this right then…
Evaluating
It sounds like…
Clarifying
Are you saying…?
Repeating
<keyword>?
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7. Try it out
Alright and by always starting with the good things, why do you do that?
Okay, do you go through the good points chronologically?
Oh so you feel it’s not worth bringing that kind of thing up?
Probe
Clarify
Paraphrase
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8. Purpose of this paper To what extent did I use active listening?
How useful is active listening in eliciting long responses in semi-structured interviews?
What problems were there in trying to implement the active listening approach?
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9. Context 4 interviews with teacher trainers:
Commercial TESOL training centre in Bangkok
Eliciting beliefs about teaching, training and teaching practice
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10. Analysis of interviews
Interviewer’s Initiation 1
Response 1
Interviewer’s initiation 2
Response
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11. Analysing the interviewer’s intention
Response 1
Initiation
Open – a new topic
Probe – the same topic
Evaluate – the same topic with new perspective
Paraphrase – the same subtopic, reworded
Clarify – a question about the same subtopic
Repeat – an echo of a word or phrase
This shows how I used their reply to elicit further responses.
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12. Analysing the interviewee’s interpretation
Response 1
Initiation
Response 2
Open – new content expected
Probe – additional content expected
Evaluate – change in perspective expected
Paraphrase – additional content on subtopic expected
Clarify – rewording required
Repeat – no new content expected
This analysis shows how the initiations were interpreted.
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13. Proportion of Functions
Intention
Interpretation n
Proportion
Opening 44
24% 43
Probing 69
38% 60
32%
Paraphrasing 33
18% 29
16%
Evaluating 8 4% 5 3%
Clarifying 27
15% 36
20%
Repeating 1
0.5% 9 5%
76% of initiations followed from the interviewee’s turns (i.e. Involved active listening).
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14. Response length by function
Intention
Interpretation
x̄ words SD
SD/x̄
Opening
111
117.6
1.06
104
109.1
1.05
Probing 94
56.3
0.59
109
67.8
0.62
Paraphrasing 37
39.5 60
34.2
0.57
Evaluating 97
19.4
0.2 77
44.7
0.58
Clarifying 36
37.2
1.03 32
35.9
1.11
Repeating 93 - 2
1.1
0.67
Large mismatch between intention and interpretation for paraphrasing
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15. Point biserial correlation
Compare the length of responses with:
rpb
P (two tailed)
where intention and interpretation functions match
+0.14
where functions were intended as open*
+0.02
where functions were interpreted as open*
+0.46
<.0001
*Open functions: Openings, probing and paraphrasing
Length of response correlates to interviewee’s interpretation of initiations
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16. Mismatches between Interpretation and Intention
Intention mismatches
Open
1 (2.7%)
interpreted as a probe.
Probe
13 (18.8%)
interpreted as clarify (7), paraphrase (5), evaluation (1)
Paraphrase
14 (42.4%)
interpreted as repeat (6), clarify (8)
Evaluate
4 (50%)
interpreted as paraphrase (2), probe (1) , clarify (1)
Clarify
7 (25.9%)
interpreted as probe (1), repeat (3) , paraphrase (3)
Repeat
1 (100%)
interpreted as a probe
A large proportion of paraphrase function mismatch
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17. Clarify interpreted as paraphrase
I Is it normally the case that they do have their [own] ideas? S Yeah and sometimes um they’re ve-, students can be stubborn so they might not think anything was amiss or they feel unusually down when they should be feeling more positive about way things.
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18. Paraphrase interpreted as clarify
I Alright, so basically you let them give their overall feelings first, then you go through the positive things, if there are joint things together, then separately, and then stuff that they need to think about afterwards. S Yeah.
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19. Paraphrasing signals
‘Let me see. You’re saying that it’s because you’re serious that they don’t participate in any great detail’ (Edge, 2005, 61).
‘Alright, so you’ve got a few minutes at the beginning of the lesson where they’re alone talking to each other’ (interpreted as ‘clarify’).
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20. Paraphrasing signals If I’ve understood you properly, then...
Let me see if I understand you. You’re saying that ...
Just let me check that I’m with you. So you mean that...
From Edge, J. (2002) Continuing Cooperative Development. University of Michigan Press.
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21. Conclusion
Openings, probes and paraphrases are useful for eliciting long responses.
Clarifying, repeating and evaluating create focus.
The interviewee’s interpretation of the initiation is important for consistently long responses.
Clear signals help interviewee’s recognise function of an initiation.
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22. Purpose of this paper To what extent did I use active listening?
How useful is active listening in eliciting long responses in semi-structured interviews?
What problems were there in trying to implement an active listening approach?
22/11/2018

23. Q&A
22/11/2018