Abstract

The 1st Postgraduate Student Seminar on Current Issues in Language, Literature, and Culture was organized by the Department of English, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia and held on February 13, 2020 at the faculty. The event was officiated by the Head of Department, Associate Prof Dr. Rosli Talif. Throughout the seminar, Professor Dr. Martin Cortazzi, the invited Keynote Speaker from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom, was present to provide constructive feedback to all 10 postgraduate student presenters. The topics discussed covered a variety of themes within the scope of language, literature and translation studies. Martin delivered an engaging sharing of his talk entitled "Researching in Interviews and through Narratives". The first part of his talk was devoted to interview as a tool for qualitative research. He elaborated on the different ways to conduct interviews and pointed at several factors of concerns such as the importance of structuring suitable questions, sequencing and wording of questions, and choosing the right medium of language. He maintained that an interview does not serve the sole purpose of gathering information but also is a form of social encounter which involves obtaining the insider's perspectives as well as an understanding of the participant's meanings and interpretations through the comments given. Being part of a speech act, an interview further requires the maneuvering of power control, initiatives and management of ideas. All these would not be possible without the element of "trustworthiness". Martin shared useful strategies of neutrality, distance, politeness, formality, and impartiality in conducting interviews. In sum, such a delicate process requires experience which can be strengthened with practice. Martin dedicated the second part of the talk in the afternoon to discuss using "narrative" in research. Researchers who study narratives should be both reflective and reflexive. Two examples of narratives are case histories and life stories. Based the research objectives and questions enlightened by the related literature, the analysis of the narrative opens up discoveries of personal perspectives on events from which meanings and interpretations can be construed. Martin concluded by elaborating on some models, such as William Labov's, to aid in the analysis of narratives.