Understanding problems with “open” questions – what are your thoughts?
Hva tenker du in Norwegian police interviews
Keywords:
police interviews, question types, open questions, conversation analysis, understanding problemsAbstract
Modern approaches to police interviews highlight the use of open questions and other strategies to make the interviewee able to give a free statement. One common question type in Norwegian police interviews is a question formulated with hva tenker du ‘what are your thoughts’ (about X/that/etc.). In this article, questions with this phrase are investigated and described using Conversation Analysis on audio recordings of police interviews. It is shown that the question type has different functions that depend on the sequential context of the question and its placement in the overall structure of the interview. On one hand, the analysis shows how important the context is in interpreting the use of this format, and how little the format itself influences the trajectory. On the other hand, the analysis also shows the occurrence of understanding problems, particularly in L2 interactions, possibly related to the openness of the question.
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