In this study, the researcher utilized an interpreter to assist in the process of qualitative interviews. The purpose of the interviews was to investigate the information-seeking behavior of international graduate student from China (PRC). Protecting participant data and confidentiality was a key ethical issue identified with using an interpreter from among a peer member. By having a peer present during the interview, participants could possible feel threatened that any information would be compromised, and thus alter the accuracy of the data. Furthermore, by having an interpreter present, participants might feel that the research holds certain assumptions or biases against non-native English speakers. Those wishing to utilize an interpreter in conjunction with the SMM should consider how this may hinder the communication between the researcher and participant.
5.4.1 Theoretical Challenges
The decision to have an interpreter available for student use during the interview was to support cross-cultural research protocol by supporting dialog, expression, and cultural context. However, the vulnerability in which the participants positioned themselves, in order to reveal their information behavior, was jeopardized by the loss of confidentiality with a peer present in the interview. Though the subject matter of the interview was not associated with posing any risk of
physical harm to the participants, there was an issue of possible socio-cultural status at jeopardy. Since the interpreter was a peer to the participants’ with the same or similar linguistic ability and educational status, this might influence the participant’s level of comfort during the interview by causing the participants to be defensive of the researcher who has imposed a bias against their ability to communicate in English.
5.4.2 Logistical Challenges
At the beginning of the research study, the researcher had planned to make the interpreter available for all interviews with the purpose of assisting in clear communication between participant and researcher. However, by the second interview, a few concerns arose related to the limitations of using an interpreter. First, participants in the research study did not necessarily need an interpreter depending on their level of fluency in spoken English. Since the participants in the study were current university level graduate students, they had some level of fluency in English.
Unlike previous research studies that have utilized interpreters to work with immigrant or refugee populations, international graduate students are sojourners that arrive to school with a certain expected amount of fluency of language, as denoted by some sort of entrance exam. Though, an exam score cannot guarantee fluency in a language, it does denote the student’s ability to take course work in English at a graduate level. Taking this unique aspect into consideration, this supported the decision to make the interpreter optional. Additional logistical challenges identified with this study included difficulty in scheduling interviews due to the interpreter’s availability. At the onset of the study the interpreter stated that he/she was available
to participate in the study any day of the week. However, once the study began, the interpreter changed his/her availability and limited his/her days available to assist in the study due to gaining an internship. The reduced availability of the interpreter limited the researcher in being able to proceed with scheduled interviews, and further supported the ultimate decision to make the interpreter optional upon request. For interviews where an interpreter was not present, a Chinese-English to English-Chinese Dictionary was provided. The dictionary was selected and provided on loan through the East Asian Studies collection at the University of Pittsburgh and utilized by two participants.
Once the interpreter was made optional, only two participants requested that the interpreter be present. For the interviews that the interpreter provided assistance, further work was performed in the role of translator. In the transcription of the audio, the interpreter translated the Mandarin into both English and Pinyin. The purpose of the Pinyin text, was to serve in the cross checking of the translation by another Mandarin speaker to verify that the conversation had been properly translated from Mandarin to English. In this capacity, the interpreter supported cross-cultural interview protocols.
It was the decision of the researcher to ultimately make the interpreter optional during the interviews. Ultimately the researcher did not detect any hindrance in the communication between the participants and herself. In one instance a participant responded back to the researcher in Mandarin. At that particular point in the interview the participant had become so comfortable with the researcher that when she affirmed a statement, confirmation of “yes” came out in Mandarin. The participant continued in the conversation without hesitation or halt. Future studies may want to consider having an interpreter, and a dictionary available, for interviewing participants who do not share the same native language as the researcher. However, one should
be privy to how it may impact intimacy and confidentiality of the interview. Future researchers wishing to interview participants whose native language is not shared with the participant population may have to ask for clarification from participants to ensure clarity of understanding.
Participants were given the option to utilize an interpreter or a dictionary. For the most part participants opted to not use the interpreter and did not express difficulty in conversing. However, some participants did have difficulty using pronouns which caused some confusion for the researcher, here is one such example:
“We, before you did this project, we knew nothing about this. You were just a major in this in Urban Planning and Environment. But after this situation you have a better knowledge about this.”
Clarity of the interviewees’ responses was supported with the assistance of both the interpreter and two additional native Mandarin speakers that assisted with the transcription process of the interview recordings. Through this extra effort of reviewing transcriptions, it supported the trustworthiness of the data and clarity of understanding.