The Interview

I developed this simple resource initially as a speaking and listening exercise but quickly discovered I could extend it into a writing activity. The questions are designed not to be too personal. I have used it several times and it has worked well with learners from Entry 1 to Level 2. I particularly like the fact that learners have produced some really excellent writing, which is usually what they find the most difficult.

For the first part of the activiy, learners work in pairs. One of the pair is interviewer and one is interviewee. I stress that the interviewer is going to ask a series of questions in order to find out about the interviewee and the answers must be their opinions. I give the interviewer one of the interview sheets for them to record the answers and allow them about 15 minutes.

In the second part, each of the interviewers stands up and tells the group a few details about the person that they have interviewed. Choose an outgoing member of the group to start and stress that they don’t have to give all of the information on their sheet but just to tell us about the person in their own words.

The process is then repeated, with the roles reversed so that each learner has been interviewed and interviewed another learner.

In last part of the activity each learner writes about the person that they have interviewed. I usually explain that I would like at least two paragraphs, one that tells me what the person looks like and the second about their likes and dislikes. As they have the information recorded, they have a frame to work from, which makes the task less daunting.