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To validate the data which were collected via the questionnaires and reading diaries, and to gain a deeper insight into the students’ reading experiences, semi-structured interviews were conducted. Since the primary aim of this research project is not to measure responses and make generalisations from data but rather to capture the uniqueness of the individual case, a rather open-ended interview format was required. I therefore made use of guiding questions but still followed topical trajectories which strayed from the guide whenever necessary:

Semi-structured interviews are based on a set of prepared, mostly open-ended questions, which guide the interview and the interviewer. This interview guide should be applied flexibly and leave room for the interviewee’s perspective and topics in addition to the questions. (Flick, 2014, pp. 197–198)

According to Nunan (1994, p. 150), benefits of the semi-structured interview are that on the one hand “it gives the interviewee a degree of power and control over the course of the interview” and on the other hand “the interviewer a great deal of flexibility.” Therefore, it may permit a profound and deep insight into peoples’ lives.

In order to enable the students to talk freely about their experiences, the interviews were conducted in German. The setting was a classroom and the teacher was not present during the interview. The interviews were tape-recorded and I took additional notes.

Questions in the interviews were open and thus allowed expansion and elaboration in the students’ responses. In order to facilitate comparability of the responses across the interviewees the questions were arranged in topic areas and a number of standardised questions were addressed in all interviews.

I made use of an interview guide in which the topics and issues to be covered in the interviews were listed. This outline “increases the comprehensiveness of the data and makes data collection somewhat systematic for each respondent” (Patton, 1980, p. 206). At the same time, it facilitates that interviews “remain fairly conversational and situational” (ibid.).

In the information phase, the interview partners were thanked for their participation and offered something to drink, after which the purpose of the interview was explained. The students were assured that their anonymity would be protected and it was stressed that there were no right or wrong answers to the questions. The informants were encouraged to talk from their own perspectives and experiences. In addition, the students were informed about the time frame of the interview and invited to take their time and talk about their experiences in detail.

The topic areas listed in the interview guide were then addressed. The following example of an interview guide used with Rebecca (case 11) may illustrate the procedure further:

1 Biographical data: personality and family, hobbies, experiences with languages and cultures

2 General experiences in the reading project: reflections upon expectations

3 Responses to individual books/stories: most impressive and least impressive text, encounters with foreignness, empathy with characters

4 Global topics: HIV/AIDS, child soldiers, gender issues

5 Conversations about literary texts with others

6 Further suggestions for reading project

7 Reflections upon changes in perspectives

8 Reflections upon school partnership with a Ugandan school

The interview was chosen as a research instrument for this study because it produces data with greater depth than other data collection methods (Cohen et al., 2011, p. 411). In an interview, opportunities for explaining ambiguities, making clarifications and elaborations are given. This helps to make the individual perspectives of the different subjects visible.

On the other hand, interviews are open to subjectivity and interviewer bias (Cohen et al., 2011, p. 411). Therefore, the person who is interviewing has to recognise her/his own bias and has to avoid “being judgemental” (Patton, 1980, p. 421). According to Nunan (1994, p. 150), “one source of bias is the asymmetrical relationship between the participants”. Interviewer and interviewee do not have the same rights and power and this may affect the interview. Therefore, the researcher should show maximum respect in an interview. Another source of bias can be the lack of anonymity of interviews. Because of the face-to-face contact with the researcher, interviews are particularly susceptible to social desirability bias. Sudman and Bradburn (1982, pp. 32–33) list a number of topics which are desirable and therefore often over-reported in interviews: being a good citizen (e.g. voting, taking a role in community activities), being a well-informed and cultural person (e.g. reading newspapers), fulfilling moral and social responsibilities (e.g. giving to charity). Topics such as illness and disabilities, illegal or contra-normative behaviour and financial status on the other hand are rather underreported in interviews, Sudman and Bradburn explain. The researcher has to be aware of this social desirability bias and consider it in her/his analysis.