Bilingual Interviewing

Bilingual interviewing refers to in-person and telephone surveys that employ interviewers who have the [Page 61]ability to speak more than one language. Typically in the United States, this means they are fluent in English and in Spanish. These interviewers use their language abilities to gain cooperation from sampled respondents and/or to gather data from these respondents.

It has become increasingly common for survey research organizations and their clients to gather the voices, viewpoints, and experiences of respondents who speak only in a native language other than English or prefer to speak in a language other than English. Representation from a sample that closely resembles the target population is important in reducing possible coverage and nonresponse biases. Even though the most common bilingual ethnic group in the ...