To practice interview skills.
To improve structured speaking practice.
To write a press release
To write a new report
To practice listening and taking notes.
To reflect on resume

When to use it?

While learning about communication skills.

Materials:

Photocopies of interviewee CVs, photocopy of interviewee sheet, sticky label.

Preparation:

Read the info box about press meeting and interviewing.
Find samples of a press release.
Make copies of the CVs and interviewee sheet according to the number of the group.

Presentation:

Tell students that they have got the job of reporter for a magazine about some famous people. They are going to interview some famous people and they need to prepare some general questions they can ask any famous person – actors, singers, sports stars, politicians etc.
For this, choose two volunteers from the group to be the famous person and give them the interviewee sheet which include detailed information about the famous people they will act.
Distribute to the rest of the group the CVs of the two famous people they will interview.
Give some examples, like, ‘Do you enjoy your job?’ or ‘Are you happy being so famous?’ and get students to write four questions and put them into a table with the questions going down the left hand side and space for five columns to the right.
While the interviewees are studying the information about their characters, ask the class to study their CV to understand their career path and life.
Then ask students which famous person they would like to be and give each one a sticky label or a sticky note for them to write the name of the famous person on and stick on themselves.
Put students into two concentric circles with the inner circle facing out and outer circle facing in.
Tell students that they are going to interview the person directly in front of them for two minutes and note down all the information they find out. They are also going to be interviewed.
The facing pairs take turns in the different roles of interviewer and famous person. At two-minute intervals shout ‘stop’ and ask the outer circle to step one person to the right. Shout ‘start’ to give students two more minutes with a new famous person.
When each student has interviewed and been interviewed five or six times stop the activity and seat students. The information they have gathered about the famous people can then be shared with the group orally or used for a piece of writing for a gossip magazine.

Possible Variations:

If you have an odd number rotate one person out of the circle each time you move the other circle around. This person can help you to monitor and can walk around the circle listening to the others in action and making a note of any mistakes they hear.