Chapter 10

Continuers in research interviews

Richards (2011) discussed the importance of understanding the role that continuers (Schegloff 1982) play in research interviews, proposing that understanding how talk is organized has been overlooked in researcher training. This paper draws from ethnomethodology and conversation analysis to explore the researcher’s use of “mm hm” as a response token in a set of three interviews conducted with one participant during a qualitative case study. Specifically, it focuses on how the use of “mm hm” as a continuer, an acknowledgement token used as a way to give attention to participant accounting, and the use of silence might contribute to the interactional accomplishment of establishing rapport. Finally, the researcher reflects on the usefulness of examining response tokens in research interviews ethnomethodologically, the implications for developing interviewing expertise, and offers suggestions for future research.