Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 97 views

    Oral History Interview

    Uploaded by

    Christian Peltier
    How to conduct an oral interview with historical fidelity.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Oral History Interview

    Uploaded by

    Christian Peltier
    97 views8 pages
    How to conduct an oral interview with historical fidelity.

    Original Title

    Oral History Interview PPT

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    How to conduct an oral interview with historical fidelity.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    97 views8 pages

    Oral History Interview

    Uploaded by

    Christian Peltier
    How to conduct an oral interview with historical fidelity.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    of 8

    Your Family History

    ORAL HISTORY
    INTERVIEW
    What is Oral History?

    Think about past times. Wouldn’t it be fascinating if we


    could hear people from that time speaking about their
    lives? (A Roman soldier’s wife, a Victorian chimney
    sweep…)

    Listen to recordings of people speaking about life in the


    past. Play Audio extracts.

    Your mission is to add to oral history by interviewing an


    older family member. Now you must focus your efforts
    with a theme or concept (i.e., ‘Growing up in the 1960s’).
    Helping People Talk (Exercise 1)

    In pairs, practice asking each other to talk for about 3


    minutes about memories of first attending school.

    Report back on what you learnt.

    Things to keep in mind:


    Don’t ask too many questions, which may prevent the
    person you’re recording from telling their story in their
    own way.
    Use general prompts like “Tell me about your first weeks
    at school”. Avoid questions that get one word answers.
    Helping people talk (Exercise 2)

     Practice Interviewing Mr. Peltier

     Let me share a memory (it’s like an episode of my life!).

     Keep in mind that I will answer with one word if I can, so you
    must use open-ended questions (i.e. “Describe your family”
    rather than “Was your family poor?”).

     Think about the order in which you ask the questions. What
    do they need to know first? How can they get you to ‘set the
    scene’ – before asking you for greater detail or how you felt
    about things.
    Preparing for Interview Pt. 1

     Give basic information about interviewee: date of birth; where


    brought up; what parents did; brothers and sisters; year of
    immigration, if applicable. (This can be written down and recorded at
    start of interview, to save beginning with short questions and answers.)

     Show photos if available.

     What do we want to find out? Many people think of an


    interview as being like a celebrity questionnaire –“What’s your
    favourite film?”; “Who do you most admire?” These might be
    suitable questions for later in the interview, it’s confusing to jump
    about from subject to subject and better to go through a life-story in
    order.

     Hence, we need to have a general outline of prompts to guide the


    interview.
    Preparing for Interview Pt. 2

    Here’s an example of a list of prompts:


     Family; place where brought up; school; out-of-school
    activities; moving to this country or this place (if applicable).
     First memories of country/town/village
     What are your memories of shops in the 1960s?
     Food?
     Clothes?
     Technology?
     Travel?
     People you remember
     Any other special memories ?
     Looking back, what do you remember best?
    Preparing for Interview Pt. 3

    This list will help you with the interview, but the real
    art of interviewing is listening to what someone says
    and asking something that follows on from it.

    Be sure to write your own brief prompts for future


    use as the interview progresses.

    Remember that if you can’t think of a question you


    can always try: “What else do you remember?”
    The actual interview

     Set up interview space and test recording device.


     It’s important not to put hands up or look as if you’d like to
    interrupt, while the interviewee is speaking, as you can’t know
    what to ask until you’ve heard what they have to say!
     Collect your interviewee and explain what will happen.
     Record the interview.
     Towards the end, make sure you ask a ‘wrapping-up’ question
    (“Looking back….)
     If time, ask interviewee for any memories not covered.
     Turn off the recorder and check the recording.
     Ask the interviewee to sign a consent form. (Explain to the
    class why this is needed – see Ethics and copyright.)

    You might also like