Qualitative online interviews: Voices of applied linguistics researchers

Abstract

The power, convenience, and efficiency made possible by online communication tools have become increasingly important in qualitative research. The tradition's most central data collection method, interviewing, is in turn rapidly changing shape as these tools are integrated into data collection processes. Drawing from the perspective of interviewing as a social process (Talmy, 2010), as well as the Online Interviewing Ecology framework (Meskill et al., 2024), which includes three main elements—modalities, time, and relationship, this study examines the emerging strategies and characteristics of qualitative online interviewing in applied linguistics. Applying specific selection criteria, we interviewed the interviewer/authors of 6 recent empirical studies in applied linguistics that employed online qualitative interviewing for data collection. Thematic analysis of resulting transcripts in tandem with the authors' published empirical papers provides the basis for rich description of how researchers conceived of and deepened interviews through a dialogic meaning making approach. Findings suggest that online interviewing can be a very productive means for co-constructing meaning between interviewers and interviewees. Participants' responses also helped us to reconceive our initial framework: the interconnected categories of time and modalities serve to support the development of the interviewer-interviewee relationships that more directly shapes the flow and quality of the co-constructed interview discourse.