The Repertory Grid Interview: Exploring Qualitative and Quantitative Data on Language Teachers’ Pedagogical Beliefs

Abstract

This article focuses on the use of the repertory grid technique as a research instrument for conducting and analyzing interviews in the field of teaching English as a foreign language. As a demonstration of the explanatory usefulness of this methodological framework, a pilot study was carried out to elicit second language teachers’ tacit beliefs concerning cultural perceptions of good language teaching. Repertory grid interviews were conducted with nine teachers at a public university in central Mexico. The data from each group were compared to uncover possible cultural influences on participants’ beliefs. It is hoped that this overview of the method encourages an interest in repertory grid interviews and their analytic techniques in the field of applied linguistics and in English as a foreign language teaching in particular.