Power Relations Between the Researcher and the Researched: An Analysis of Native and Nonnative Ethnographic Interviews

Abstract

Based on an analysis of native and nonnative language interviews, this article argues that being a nonnative interviewer, in a weaker position, makes it easier to elicit information from native interviewees. One reason for this is that the interviewer is obliged to let interviewees define their concepts, deferring to their position as a language authority and recognizing one aspect of the power relationship. Power in ethnographic interviewing is always negotiated, and this article demonstrates how the spoken languages of interviewer and interviewee affects ethnographic interviews and power dynamics in dialogs. Some useful discourse strategies for native and nonnative language ethnographic interviewers are also discussed.