Conversational Interview Skills

Overview

This 56-minute session develops Year 6 pupils' ability to engage confidently in short, spoken exchanges in the target language, focusing on daily life vocabulary. Through a creative role-play as chat show hosts, students will practise asking, adapting, and expanding on simple questions. This aligns with the National Curriculum for MFL, promoting both spoken language skills and intercultural understanding.

National Curriculum Links

Key Stage 2: Modern Foreign Languages

Listening and Speaking: Pupils should engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help.
Linguistic Competence: Develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases.
Intercultural Understanding: Learn about festivals and celebrations in countries where the language is spoken and develop awareness of cultural differences and similarities.

Specific Learning Objectives for this lesson:

Engage in short conversations using familiar vocabulary relating to daily life and personal interests.
Adapt and extend question prompts to maintain conversation flow.
Use pronunciation and intonation with increased accuracy.
Employ strategies to clarify meaning and ask for repetition or explanation where needed.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the lesson, pupils will be able to:

Confidently conduct an interview in pairs entirely in the target language, adapting provided question prompts.
Use newly acquired vocabulary related to everyday topics such as family, hobbies, school life, and food.
Employ strategies for conversational turn-taking and clarification.
Demonstrate improved pronunciation and intonation.

Resources

Printed “Chat Show Interview Prompts” cards with starter questions in the target language.
Vocabulary sheets relating to daily life topics (with images for scaffolding).
Audio clips/model videos of native speakers conducting simple interviews.
Whiteboard and markers.
Recording device (optional for peer review).

Lesson Structure

1. Introduction and Context Setting (10 minutes)

Objective: Contextualise the activity and activate prior knowledge.
Brief whole-class chat about TV chat shows and interviewing – what do hosts do?
Introduce the day’s task: pupils will become chat show hosts interviewing each other in pairs.
Revisit core vocabulary linked to daily life (family, hobbies, school, food). Use images and quick choral repetition for pronunciation focus.
Play a short audio or video clip of a simple interview in the target language to model intonation and flow.

National Curriculum Focus: Speaking and Listening – engage in conversations and listening with attention to pronunciation.

2. Pair Work Preparation (10 minutes)

Distribute “Chat Show Interview Prompts” cards, containing simple question stems (e.g., "What is your favourite...?", "Can you describe...?", "What do you do when...?").
In pairs, pupils practice pronunciation of these starter questions aloud, with teacher monitoring and modelling intonation.
Challenge: Pupils brainstorm ways to extend or personalise the question using given vocabulary (e.g., changing “favourite food” to “favourite food at school” or “favourite leisure activity”).
Teacher circulates to offer support and model good examples.

National Curriculum Focus: Develop accurate pronunciation and intonation; extend vocabulary through manipulation of language structures.

3. Role-Play Interviews (25 minutes)

Pupils conduct two rounds of interviews, swapping roles from host to guest and vice versa.
They use and adapt their question prompts, aiming to carry on a natural conversation.
Encourage the use of follow-up questions and clarification strategies (“Can you repeat please?”, “What does ... mean?”).
Optional: Pairs record their interviews for self and peer assessment.

National Curriculum Focus: Engage in conversations, ask and answer questions, respond to others, seek clarification.

4. Group Reflection and Feedback (8 minutes)

Gather pupils for a whole-class discussion reflecting on their interviews.
Teacher highlights effective strategies observed (e.g., good use of follow-up questions, clear pronunciation).
Share a couple of short interview excerpts (if recordings were taken) as exemplars.
Collect feedback on what was enjoyable or challenging, connecting to language learning aims.

National Curriculum Focus: Reflect on own learning and the effectiveness of speech.

5. Plenary and Next Steps (3 minutes)

Recap the importance of adapting and extending language in conversations.
Introduce a brief take-home challenge: pupils write down three new questions in the target language they might ask a family member or friend.
Encourage pupils to listen for these questions at home and try to answer them out loud.

Assessment and Differentiation

Assessment:

Continuous teacher observation during pair work focusing on ability to adapt questions and maintain conversation in the target language.
Informal peer feedback on pronunciation and fluency.
Optional audio recordings used by teacher and pupils for self/peer assessment of intonation, vocabulary use, and interaction skills.

Differentiation:

Support pupils with sentence starters and vocabulary mats.
Challenge more confident learners to create their own follow-up questions independently.
Pair lower ability pupils with stronger speakers for language support in conversations.

Extension Ideas

Create a class “Chat Show” video compilation of best interviews for display or school intranet.
Invite a native speaker or secondary MFL students for a live Q&A session using similar interview formats.
Use the interview transcripts to practise writing and develop simple scripts for performance.

By engaging Year 6 pupils with creative role-play rooted firmly in the National Curriculum, this session empowers them to communicate about familiar topics with growing confidence and linguistic flexibility — essential skills for progression in MFL.

Teaching Instructions