Unipkausivut – Building Language and Literacy Skills Through Oral History

Become very familiar with the recording equipment.

You may be working in oral history teams, with one person responsible for the recording equipment, but everyone should know how to work equipment in case the equipment person is away unexpectedly.

Practice interviewing before you actually go out to do a real interview.

Make up questions in small groups and literacy group members can interview each other.
Practice interviewing in small groups: one pair can be the interviewer and the storyteller, and the rest of the small group can listen and discuss what worked best. Change roles so everyone has a chance to try interviewing.
Use this opportunity to practice using the recording equipment.
Listen to, analyze and critique the interviews and discuss changes you would make for future interviews.
You could invite someone to be interviewed before the whole class in a practice session: a friend, another literacy worker, a priest or minister, a teacher, an adult educator.
Literacy group members can practice interviewing friends and family members. They can take the recording equipment home to practice with, bring the recordings back to the literacy group and meet in small groups to listen to the recordings and critique them.

Plan a visit between the storyteller and the interviewers.

Use this as an informal time to get to know each other, to arrange the time and place for the formal interview, to discuss the theme of the interview, to explain your ethical guidelines and to sign consent forms. Since this session sets the pace for future meetings, try to be relaxed and calm and allow plenty of time, so as not to rush the conversation. Reassure the storyteller that you will work together and that they can have input and can set the pace. Encourage them to make their needs known throughout the interview process. Assume that no recording will take place at this meeting, but have the recording equipment along and ready to use - just in case the interviewee begins to tell his story.¹

Plan how you will record the answers to the questions you listed.

Although you may not ask direct questions during the interview, you will want to check regularly that you are collecting information that answers your questions. At the end of each interview, go back to your questions and check off the ones that were answered. Each interview might generate more questions as well as answers. Perhaps two people from each oral history team – those who are not the interviewers – could take on the responsibility of recording answers to the group’s questions

Each oral history team should plan how to organize the material they collect.

Each team could prepare filing cabinet drawers or bankers’ boxes to store their information. The team should plan how to organize their files and be very aware of the value of their notes and recordings. Establish a system for getting materials directly to the file after the interview, so there’s no chance of losing important research.