HELP SHEET 1
INTERVIEWING A PERSON
The name of the person I want to interview is
___________________________________________________________________
I want to interview him/her because
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
I want to talk to him/her about
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
There are three stages to think about:

Arranging the interview

Planning the interview

Carrying out the interview.
Tick each stage when you have completed it.
There is a Help Sheet for each stage.
HELP SHEET 2
ARRANGING THE INTERVIEW
Before you can interview someone, you must ask if they are willing to talk to you.
You can do this by
a. speaking to the person face to face
b. telephoning
c. writing a letter, a fax or an e-mail.
Tick the method you will use, then find the notes below which deal with that method.
a. If you are going to speak to the person face to face
Plan what you are going to say, and practise with the teacher or with a partner. Here
are some of the things you might want to think about:
1. How will you get the person’s attention?
You could begin with ‘Hello’ or Excuse me’ and then the person’s name.
For example:
‘Hello, Mr Sinclair.’
‘Excuse me, Mrs Robinson.’
2. Explain who you are (unless they know you already, of course!) You
could say:
‘My name is.............. I go to ............... school.’
3. Explain what you want, and why. For example:
‘I’m studying life in ........................ and I thought you might be able to help
me.’
‘Would you be willing to talk to me about life in ............................. ?’
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4. Arrange a time and place to meet to talk.
‘When would be convenient for you?’
‘Where would be the best place to meet?’
Or you could suggest a time and place. For example:
‘Would you be able to come in to the school on Tuesday at 2 o’clock when
I have my Modern Language class?
5. Say thank you, and make sure you are both clear about when and where
you will meet.
NOTE: If you arrange for the person to come to school, don’t forget to tell your
teacher and the school office so that they will be expecting them. It might be a good
idea to arrange to be around when your interviewee arrives, so that you can look
after them and make them feel welcome.
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b. If you are going to telephone to arrange the interview
Practise with the teacher or with a friend if you feel nervous. Thinking what you are
going to do and say before you make the call will help you to feel more confident and
easy about it. Here are some things to think about before you make the call.
Write down the number you are going to phone:
__________________________________________
Who are you going to ask to speak to?
_________________________________________________
What will you say if the person you want to speak to is not there?
___________________________________________________________________
When the person you want to speak to is on the line, explain who you are and where
you go to school
___________________________________________________________________
Explain what you want, and why
___________________________________________________________________
Arrange a time and place to meet and talk
___________________________________________________________________
Say thank you and make sure you are both clear about when and where you will
meet.
___________________________________________________________________
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c. If you are going to send a letter, a fax or an e-mail
You need to say the same sort of things as you would say to the person face to face
or on the phone, but you say it in writing.
You need to:
 say who you are
 explain why you are writing
 say what you want them to do for you
 arrange a time to meet.
Here’s an example, but of course you would need to put in your own details and
change it to fit your own arrangements. If you are writing a letter, remember to put
your address at the top of the page. Your teacher will show you the correct way to
set it out, or your English teacher may be able to help.
Here are some ideas for what you could put in your letter, but you will have to add
the details, of course.
Dear ..........................................
My name is ……………......and I am a student at …………(school or college)
.....................................
I am studying life in ..........(country).......... and am investigating
.................(topic)................................
I would like to talk to you about this to help me with my studies.
If you are agreeable, I would like to have a meeting with you soon. Would it
be convenient for me to come to see you on .........(date)............ at
..........(time)...........?
or:
Would you be able to come to ..........(place)....... on ...........(date)....... at
..........(time)........?
I hope you will agree to help me and I look forward to talking to you.
Yours sincerely
...... (your name in full).......
Make sure that all the words are spelled correctly and that your letter looks clean and
neat.
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HELP SHEET 3
PLANNING THE INTERVIEW
You want the interview to go well, so here are some of the things you need to think
about in advance. There is a planning sheet on the next page for you to note down
what you plan to do.
Preparing some of the questions
The person you are going to interview will expect you to be quite clear about what
you want to ask them, so have a list of questions ready. You can of course ask other
questions that occur to you during the conversation, but the list will be there to
remind you if get stuck, or if you forget what you meant to ask about.
You can ask detailed questions about particular things you want to know about, or
you can ask more ‘open’ questions and leave it to the person to decide what they
think you would be interested in. It is probably best to have a mixture of questions.
Remember to ask them their opinions, as well as about facts. It might be interesting
to ask them how they feel about similar things in this country too.
Write down a list of the things you want to ask about and have it handy during the
interview. You might like to show the list of questions to your teacher or to the group
you are working with, to see if they have any good ideas you could include.
Deciding where to hold the interview
Discuss with the teacher where would be the best place to hold the interview. A
noisy classroom is probably not the best place for a quiet conversation!
Recording the information
You need to remember what the person says so that you can use it in your
investigation, so think about how you are going to do this.
If you write quickly and easily you could take notes, but this is difficult to do and hold
a good conversation at the same time. It would probably be better to listen very
carefully and to make notes as soon as possible after the interview has ended.
If the person agrees, you could tape the conversation, but remember to arrange the
equipment beforehand and make sure it works.
There is a form on the next page for your planning notes.
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INTERVIEWING A PERSON: PLANNING NOTES
Name of person to be interviewed:
Date and time of interview:
Where the interview will be held:
Some questions to ask:
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HELP SHEET 4
CONDUCTING THE INTERVIEW
When you meet the person you are going to interview
 Smile. Say good morning or good afternoon and their name.
 Thank them again for agreeing to help you.
 Make sure you have your questions handy and anything else that will be
needed during the interview.
At the beginning of the interview
 Smile. Remind the person of the topic you are studying.
 If you are recording the interview, switch on the recorder and make sure it is
working.
During the interview
 Ask your questions clearly and politely.
 Listen very carefully to the answers, whether long or short.
 Let the person know you are listening carefully by:
o making eye contact (looking at them)
o looking interested
o nodding at suitable points
o expressing your interest in words (Oh, that’s interesting. Really?)
o asking follow-up questions (Probably beginning with question words
like Who? What? How?)
o asking for further information (Could you tell me more about that?)
At the end of the interview
 Thank the person again for giving you their time.
 Say how interesting you found it and how it will help you in your work.
After the interview
As soon as you can, do one or more of these things:
 If you have recorded the interview, make sure that the recording has been
successful.
 Make notes about what you have learned, by hand or on a computer.
 Tell somebody all about it. (Going over the details aloud will help to fix them in
your memory.)
 Record your report on tape so that you can listen to it again later.
 Write to the person, or phone them, to say how useful the interview has been.
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PRESENTING YOUR FINDINGS
When you have finished your investigation, you need to present your findings. There
are different ways of doing this. You may decide to use one or more of the methods
listed on this page, your teacher may suggest a method, or you can use ideas of
your own.
Remember that as well as describing life in the country you chose to study, you have
to compare it with life in your part of this country. In other words, you have to say
what is the same and what is different about life in the two countries.
You also need to show that you are familiar with some of the foreign words and
phrases that are used. You may be able to find ways of including these words in your
presentation. If not, your teacher will suggest other ways for you to show how much
you know about the language.
You could...
 give a talk, perhaps using pictures, maps or diagrams to help you
 make a poster or booklet
 write an article about it
 create a series of pictures or photographs and write captions for them
 give an interview in which you talk about your findings to the interviewer
 write and perform a dialogue between two people, one from Scotland, one from
the foreign country, talking about life in their countries
 direct and make a video showing similar scenes from the two countries.
Other methods…



Whatever way you decide to present your findings, make sure that you have
included all the things needed for you to pass the assessment. There is a checklist
on the next page which you can use to see if you are really ready.
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ASSESSMENT CHECKLIST
1a Learning about life in another country
In order to pass the assessment at the end of each period of study, you have to
show that you have learned at least six things about a particular aspect of life in the
country you are studying.
Can you do this?
Think about it, and tick one of the boxes for each thing you can think of. Of course,
you may think of lots more than six, but six is the minimum needed to pass. How
many boxes can you tick? Have you included each of those things in your
presentation?
1b Comparing life in another country with life in Scotland
You must also be able show that you can compare at least three things in the foreign
country with similar things in your own part of Scotland. That means you must be
able to show what is the same in the two countries, or what is different.
Can you do this?
Think about it, and tick one of the boxes for each thing you can think of. Of course,
you may think of more than three, but three is the minimum needed to pass. How
many boxes can you tick? Have you included each of those things in your
presentation?
Now turn over and see if you know enough of the language to pass.
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2 Language
You must be able to show that you know at least eight items of the foreign language
which have something to do with the aspect of life you have been studying. If you
have been keeping a Language Log it will be easy for you to test yourself to see if
you are still familiar with the words and phrases that you have put in your Log. Look
at your Language Log now, and see if you can remember at least eight of them.
If you haven’t been keeping a log, you could think about the words and phrases you
know, and tick one box for each one you remember.
Another way of checking: you could work with another member of your group or
class and see how many you can remember between you. Then you can teach each
other the ones you didn’t know.
If you are really stuck you could ask the teacher to go over some of the words and
phrases again while you try to learn them.
If you haven’t managed to fill in all the shaded boxes, don’t worry. You can go back
and work out what it is you still need to learn, and you can ask for help if you need it.
If you have managed to put a tick in each of the shaded boxes (or more) then you
are ready to be assessed!
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Julia Summers
has successfully investigated
HOLIDAYS IN GREECE
and has learned some associated Greek words
Signed:
Date:
Julia Summers
has successfully investigated
FOOD IN GREECE
and has learned some associated Greek words
Signed:
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Date:
Julia Summers
has successfully investigated
HOLIDAYS IN GREECE
and has learned some associated Greek
words and phrases
Signed:
Date:
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