Power and paradox: Positioning English proficiency, accents and selves during interviews

The research interview has been subjected to increasing scrutiny as a widely-used yet under-theorised methodology in language studies. Too often, interview data are taken at face value and treated as a ‘report’ that accurately and objectively represents an outside ‘reality’ (Talmy 2010). In reality, interviews occur within situated spaces that involve relations of power, agentive negotiations, and the intermingling of the identities and subjectivities of both the interviewer and the interviewee(s). Informed by these theoretical considerations, this paper conceptualises the interview as a space of social practice in which interlocutors collaboratively construct and enact their positions, identities and beliefs to provide evidence for the analytical advantages of this conceptualisation. Specifically, utilising the tactics of intersubjectivity the present paper aims to describe the ways in which interview participants (re)position and (re)negotiate self-conceptions of proficiency, attitudes towards language and accents, and their selves during interviews. By drawing on selected excerpts of interviews with one English language user, the interconnectedness of these constructs and how their construction hinges on agency, creativity, and complexity are brought to the fore.