We can use photos of famous or unknown people to stimulate interest in a student interview situation. We can also include a video of a famous or unknown person and use this as stimulus. AI also can be used in the same way.  I do not show students an example of an interview but rather work on encouraging them to create their own. I have used with my students a completely and some might say a more bizarre approach to encourage an interview situation.

Students like the somewhat offbeat ideas and this is no exception. Some teachers have found this idea a little difficult to approach at first, but students seem to take to it like ducks to water.

This entire process can take some time, and the teacher may want to spread the work to follow up class sessions.

1. Ask students to think of their name and the first initial of each name. Some students of course may have multiple names, but I ask them to focus on their first name and their family name. My name for instance is Peter Dyer, and my initials are P and D.
2. Tell the students that they can reverse the initials if needed but the next step is to think of an interest or hobby or even a job that these two initials represent. For example, my interest is painting dust bins. I am, in fact, a dustbin painter, I paint dustbins or a painter of dustbins. Or another example could be I peek through doors. I am a door peeker.  Some interests may require a preposition to make more sense, and this is fine. The teacher can assist here. The job or hobby can be quite nonsensical, in fact the more nonsensical, the better as it removes the students from total reality and releases them from having to know anything about the job/hobby.
3. I think it is useful if the teacher gives an example from his/her name. This should get the students’ interest, and they should find the teacher’s job/interest or hobby amusing.
4. If I play the interviewee here, I will place a chair in front of the class, sit and tell the class that I am a painter of dustbins. The class then put up their hands to ask me any questions related to my interest or job. Students will be more encouraged once one or two questions have been asked and the teacher responds accordingly. Of course, questions will reflect the students’ grammatic knowledge. Should the class be more advanced in English, they might well use all tenses. Below might be a short example. P.D. is the teacher and S the students.
5. S.         Do you paint dustbins often?

      P.D.     Oh yes, almost every day.

19.       What colours do you like to use?

P.D.      Oh, I like all colours, but yellow and blue are my favourites.

S.           Do you ask people if you can paint their bins?

P.D.       I paint as many dustbins as I can, and I do it at night so the people who own the     dustbins are surprised in the morning. So no, I rarely ask people if I can paint their bins.,

S.           Do people ever get angry with you because you paint their bins?

P.D.       I don’t know because I never see them in the morning.

You notice here that the present tense is maintained but as mentioned before, students will use what tenses they feel comfortable using e.g. “Have you painted dustbins for a long time? Or: When did you begin to paint dustbins? Of course, the teacher is improvising here as he/she does not know in advance the questions and it makes for quite a lot of fun as everything is spontaneous and the students will find the teacher’s answers very clever and amusing, particularly if the teacher shows absolute seriousness in his/her responses.  Because the job interest is absurd, there is no necessity to be correct or knowledgeable and answers are always right. There is no pressure to be an expert on the subject…. who is?

6. Once the teacher has demonstrated this interview and given feed back on the students’ knowledge of this dustbin painter, it is time to ask the students for their chosen interests.  There will be many ideas and if a student has difficulties finding a job, the teacher can ask the class for ideas.
7. The teacher may decide to use a student volunteer to sit and be interviewed by the class but if the students feel comfortable about what to do, the class can be divided into groups of four or five. The groups decide what initial job sounds interesting and that student is chosen to be interviewed. I have found that once one student has been interviewed, the others will want to volunteer because they can see the fun of the activity.
8. The groups all start but they must be a decent distance apart so that they do not interfere with each other. The teacher can judge how long this interview lasts and it often depends on time but also the students-maintained interest.
9. When the groups have finished, the teacher can follow up with each group introducing their interviewee to the class and telling the whole class all the information that they have gathered about the interviewee. The rest of the class may ask questions if they wish.
10. Finally, as a follow up, the groups can then go back to their favourite interview and begin to write up a report on this person’s interest. Some students have taken a photo of the interviewee and typed up their group report on the computer. This stage is a way to encourage group writing and the interviewee can assist if further knowledge is necessary. Of course, a name must be given for the interviewee.
11. The finished interview can be printed and placed around the room for the others to read.

Please check the Pilgrims in Segovia Teacher Training courses 2026 at Pilgrims website