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From Text to Talk Answers and their uptake in standardised survey interviews Published by LOT phone: +31 30 253 6006 Janskerkhof 13 fax: +31 30 253 6000 3512 BL Utrecht e-mail: [email protected] The Netherlands http://wwwlot.let.uu.nl/ Cover illustration: New Connections by S. Unger ISBN-10: 90-78328-08-8 ISBN-13: 978-90-78328-08-7 NUR 632 Copyright © 2006: Sanne van ‘t Hof. All rights reserved. From Text to Talk Answers and their uptake in standardised survey interviews Van Tekst naar Gesprek Antwoorden en hun ontvangst in gestandaardiseerde survey interviews (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de Rector Magnificus, Prof. Dr. W.H. Gispen, ingevolge het besluit van het College voor Promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag 6 oktober 2006 des ochtends te 10.30 uur door SANNE VAN ‘T HOF geboren op 24 juli 1976 te Middelburg Promotores: Prof. Dr. Mr. P.J. van de Hoven Faculteit der Letteren Universiteit Utrecht Prof. Dr. W.P. Drew Sociology Department University of York Co-promotor: Dr. A.J. Koole Faculteit der Letteren Universiteit Utrecht Table of contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................... 8 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 9 1.1 Opening statement ........................................................9 1.2 Survey research...........................................................10 1.3 The theory of survey research......................................17 1.4 The written form of questions ......................................22 1.5 Monologic / dialogic approach of language ..................25 1.6 Written sentences, to be spoken ..................................32 1.7 Finally .........................................................................49 INTERACTION IN SURVEY INTERVIEWS RESEARCHED .......................... 53 2.1 Introduction ................................................................53 2.2 The quantitative approach...........................................54 2.3 The cognitive approach................................................58 2.4 The interactional approach..........................................62 2.4.1 Standardisation and Recipient Design ......................64 2.4.2 Standardisation and Repair......................................65 2.4.3 Collaborative Construction of Answers .....................67 2.4.4 Elaborated and non-conforming answers..................70 2.5 Methods ......................................................................75 2.6 Data ............................................................................78 RESPONSE TOKENS IN SURVEY INTERVIEWS: THE INTERVIEWER AS ANSWER RECIPIENT........................................ 83 3.1 Introduction ................................................................83 3.2 Paradigmatic question-answer sequences ....................84 3.3 When contingencies DO arise ......................................88 3.3.1 Yes as a response token ...........................................93 3.3.2 “Yes” in survey interviews and in mundane interaction............................................99 3.3.3 Receipt as continuer...............................................106 3.4 Yes as answer-receipt ................................................113 3.4.1 Receipt as closure of an expanded sequence...........115 3.4.2 Receipt at the end of a series of questions ..............122 3.5 Phonetics of ‘yes’ .......................................................128 3.6 Conclusion ................................................................135 NON-CONFORMING AND EXPANDED TYPE-CONFORMING RESPONDENT TURNS...................................................................139 4.1 Introduction ..............................................................139 4.2 Minimal expansions...................................................143 4.2.1 Serial extras ...........................................................143 4.2.2 Uncertainty markers ..............................................155 4.3 Full-blown expansions: working with the terms of the question......................159 4.3.1 Answer + post-expansion........................................160 4.3.2 Pre-expansion + answer .........................................168 4.3.3 How expansions handle dichotomies and presumptions 175 4.4 Responses that do not contain a type-conforming answer..........................................182 4.4.1 Acceptable non-conforming answers.......................183 4.4.2 Non-conforming answers that do not get accepted..185 4.4.3 The influence of design...........................................193 4.5 Conclusion ................................................................196 WHAT HAPPENS IN THIRD POSITION? THE INTERVIEWER’S UPTAKE OF NON-CONFORMING RESPONSES ..........199 5.1 Introduction ..............................................................199 5.2 Paradigmatic sequences ............................................200 5.2.1 Type-conforming answers.......................................201 5.2.2 Acceptable non-conforming answers.......................203 5.3 Reformulating the response into answer option .........206 5.3.1 The interviewer reformulates the answer ................207 5.3.2 Tentative reformulation ..........................................212 5.4 Prompts.....................................................................222 5.5 The interviewer redoes the question...........................233 5.5.1 Different representation of the same words.............234 5.5.2 Partial repeats ........................................................240 5.5.3 Incorporation of the respondent’s talk in the redoing.........................................................244 5.6 Conclusion ................................................................251 CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................255 6.1 Introduction ..............................................................255 6.2 Conduit theory ..........................................................256 6.3 Answers are not flowers, waiting to be picked ............258 6.4 Implications for standardised survey research ...........262 6.5 Relevance for interaction research .............................265 6.6 Standardised vs. conversational interviewing.............269 6.7 The unobtainable protocol .........................................271 REFERENCES ....................................................................277 APPENDIX: TRANSCRIPTION CONVENTIONS .....................................287 SAMENVATTING ....................................................................289 CURRICULUM VITAE ...................................................................303 Acknowledgements Conducting research and writing my dissertation was a fantastic journey. A lot of the time I travelled on my own, but along the way many people have helped me along. They have guided me, given me inspiration, or told me to turn back and find things that I had overlooked, and I am forever in their debt. I want to thank Tom Koole who helped me make this research project my own, and was always supportive of my plans and ideas. I am very grateful to him for taking me under his wing and for sticking with it to the end. I also want to thank Paul van den Hoven. I knew that my research was nearly completed when I was finally able to answer all his questions. I would also like to thank Paul Drew, with whom I spent endless hours discussing my research. These hours were incredibly helpful, and I am glad that I was able to spend so much time at the University of York under his tutelage. This book would not have been possible without my friends and family, who have supported my work all this time. Their support ranged from conducting mock survey interviews and computer support, to simply trying to understand what could be so exciting about the word ‘ja’. I am grateful to Meike, Wouter, Ellen, Daniela, Anne-Hilde, Michiel, Stijn, Wendy, Marco, Nina, Els, Hans, Meike, Bregje, and Steve. Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Opening statement Interaction in survey interviews is supposed to be standardised, predictable, and unvaried. Interviewers are trained to read out the questions exactly as worded and to treat each response the same. After all, the aim of standardisation is to make sure that each respondent answers the same questions, formulated in the same way, and asked in the same way. This book will show that that may be the theory of standardised interviewing, but that reality is often different. Anyone who has ever participated in a standardised interview will probably remember it simply as a string of questions and answers, as interaction that follows a rigid script. Why study that kind of interaction at all? Previous studies have shown that interviewers and respondents do more than just asking and answering questions. Both participants initiate repair (Moore & Maynard 2002), receipt each other’s talk (Marlaire & Maynard 1990), and do extra interactional work to make the interview run off smoothly (Houtkoop-Steenstra 2000). My research continues this line of research, started in the early nineteen-nineties, in which standardised interactions were analysed using the methodology developed for the analysis of everyday conversations. Marlaire and Maynard (1990) studied standardised tests aimed at establishing the development of children’s intelligence. They found confirmation of “previous investigations

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