Collecting Interactional Data in Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Contexts

[en] We draw on interdisciplinary perspectives to highlight how conventional approaches to research ethics can inadvertently oversimplify the complexities of informed consent, particularly in multilingual and multicultural environments. Adhering to procedures is just one aspect of the ethical considerations surrounding data collection. Most ethical questions that arise in research are deeply influenced by the situated dynamics of the knowledge, cultural understandings, and linguistic resources that bind or separate researchers and participants. We explore the issues involved by considering three case studies from very different research situations: with local participants in the Yucatán and in French Guiana, and with Albanian asylum seekers in France. We argue that studying situations in which participants may have very different cultural understandings of proceedings, and different epistemic rights, prompts a view of “permission” and “consent” as concepts that are necessarily situated in time and place. An example is provided with French data.

Disciplines :

Languages & linguistics

Author, co-author :

Ticca, Anna Claudia ^✱; CNRS, Université Lumière Lyon 2, France

DE SAINT-GEORGES, Ingrid ^✱; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Humanities (DHUM) > Multilingualism

Lambert, Patricia ^✱; ENS de Lyon, Université Lumière Lyon 2, France

^✱ These authors have contributed equally to this work.

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

Collecting Interactional Data in Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Contexts

Publication date :

2025

Journal title :

Research on Language and Social Interaction

ISSN :

0835-1813

eISSN :

1532-7973

Publisher :

Routledge

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

129 - 138

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/08351813.2025.2484989

Funding text :

Data collected within the Labør project, supported by the LabEx Aslan (ANR-10-LABX-0081), (2022\u20132024) and led by P. Lambert & A. Ghimenton ( https://icar.cnrs.fr/labor/ )

Available on ORBilu :

since 13 January 2026

Statistics

Number of views

14 (0 by Unilu)

Number of downloads

0 (0 by Unilu)

More statistics

Scopus citations^®

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

OpenCitations

OpenAlex citations

WoS citations^™

Bibliography

Aguinaldo, J. P., (2022). Ethics review and conversation analysis. Research Ethics, 18(4), 319–328. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470161221116552
Alby, S., & Léglise, I., (2018). Multilingualism as a resource for teaching and learning in French Guiana. In K., Maryns, S., Slembrouck, S., Sierens, P., Van Avermaet, & K., Van Gorp (Éds.), The multilingual edge of education (pp. 115–137). Palgrave Macmillan.
Antaki, C., (2011). Six Kinds of applied conversation analysis. In C., Antaki (Ed.), Applied conversation analysis intervention and change in institutional talk (pp. 1–14). Palgrave Macmillan.
Cameron, D., Frazer, E., Harvey, P., Rampton, B., & Richardson, K. (1993). Ethics, advocacy and empowerment: Issues of method in researching language. Language & Communication, 13(2), 81–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/0271-5309(93)90001-4
Cefaï, D., & Costey, P., (2009). Codifier l’engagement ethnographique ? Remarques sur le consentement éclairé, les codes d’éthique et les comités d’éthique. La Vie des idées. http://www.laviedesidees.fr/Codifier-l-engagement.html
Davison, C. M., Brown, M., & Moffitt, P. (2006). Student researchers negotiating consent in northern Aboriginal communities. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(2), 28–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690600500207
de Saint-Georges, I. (2012). Context in the analysis of discourse and interaction. In C., Chappelle (Ed.), The encyclopedia of applied linguisticsWiley(pp. 920–926). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0194
De Stefani, E., & Mondada, L. (2025). Navigating ethical issues through conversation analysis’s fundamental principles. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 58(xx), xx–xx.
Duranti, A. (1997). Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge University Press.
Eckert, P. (2014). Ethics in linguistic research. In R. J., Podesva & D., Sharma (Eds.), Research methods in linguistics (pp. 11–26). Cambridge University Press.
Erickson, F. (2004). Talk and Social Theory: Ecologies of Speaking and Listening in Everyday Life(1st ed.). Polity.
Ferreira, C. M., & Serpa, S. (2018). Informed consent in social sciences research: Ethical challenges. International Journal of Social Science Studies, Redfame Publishing, 6(5), 13–23. https://doi.org/10.11114/ijsss.v6i5.3106
Heritage, J., & Maynard, D. W., (Eds.). (2006). Communication in medical care: Interaction between primary care physicians and patients. Cambridge University Press.
Holmes. (2016). Navigating languages and interculturality in the research process: The ethics and positionality of the researcher and the researched. In M., Dasli & A. R., Díaz (Eds.), The critical turn in language and intercultural communication pedagogy (pp. 91–108). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315667294
Jouin, E., & Ticca, A. C. (2022). Le dilemme de la recherche. Bulletin de l’AFAS, 48, 52–66. https://doi.org/10.4000/afas.7475
Lambert, P. (2021). Le langage aux frontières du travail et de l’école. Revue des Langues, Cultures et Sociétés, La part langagière du travail, 7(1), 67–78.
Lie, R., & Witteveen, L. (2017). Visual informed consent: Informed consent without forms. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 20(1), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2015.1116835
Palviainen, A., (2024, April 16). Ethical and moral dilemmas in digital family data collection. Paper presented at project DigiFam: Final conference, University of Luxembourg.
Roth, W.-M., & von Unger, H. (2018). Current perspectives on research ethics in qualitative research. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 19(3), Article3. https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-19.3.3155
Speer, S. A., & Stokoe, E. (2014). Ethics in action: Consent‐gaining interactions and implications for research practice. British Journal of Social Psychology, 53(1), 54–73. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12009
Ten Have, P. (1990). Methodological issues in conversation analysis. BMS: Bulletin of Sociological Methodology/Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique, 27(1), 23–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/075910639002700102
Tennent, E., & Grattan, F., (2020). Risk, time, and consent: Balancing ethics and natural data collection. Retrieved October9, 2024, fromhttps://www.conversationanalysis.org/risk-time-and-consent-balancing-ethics-and-natural-data-collection/
Ticca, A. C. (2013). The use of laughter in bilingual doctor-patient interactions: Displaying resistance to doctor’s talk in a Mexican village. In P., Glenn & E., Holt (Eds.), Studies of laughter in interaction (pp. 107‒129). Bloomsbury Academic.
Ticca, A. C., Jouin, E., & Traverso, V. (2023). Training interpreters in asylum-seeking settings: The REMILAS project. In L., Gavioli & C., Wadensjö (Eds.), Routledge handbook on public service interpreting (pp. 362–382). Routledge.
Traverso, V. (2022). Anonymisation, pseudonymisation, consentement. Bulletin de l’AFAS, 48, 26–51. https://doi.org/10.4000/afas.7474
van Burgsteden, L., Stommel, W., Huiskes, W. M., & Rickert, M. (2025). Whose ethics? Negotiations and consultations between CA scholars and ethical assessment boards. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 57(xx), xx–xx.
von Unger, H., Dilger, H., & Schönhuth, M. (2016). Ethics reviews in the social andcultural sciences? A sociological and anthropological contribution to the debate. Forum QualitativeSozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 17(3), 20. http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-17.3.2719