Team Interview

In turn, each member of a group of four stands and is interviewed by the other three. Each interview lasts 2 minutes. By the end, every student has been in the hot seat — and every student has practised asking questions.

Procedure

1. Groups of 4. Agree on order.
2. Student 1 stands up. The other three are the interview panel.
3. 2-minute interview on a prompt: Tell us about your job / your ambition / a moment that changed you / your view on the article. Panel asks as many follow-up questions as possible.
4. Sit down. Student 2 stands. Repeat.
5. After all four interviews: group discusses which interview produced the most interesting answer, and what question turned out to be the best.

Why It Works

• Question-asking practice: the three-to-one ratio forces every panellist to generate questions.
• Sustained individual airtime: every student gets 2 minutes fully on them.
• Rotating spotlight: no student can lurk; everyone stands up once.

Prompt Types

• Getting-to-know: Tell us about your family / your hometown / your plans.
• Experience: A time you were really scared / proud / embarrassed.
• Opinion: Your view on the topic of this week.
• Character-based (for literature/drama): student IS a character from the text; panel interviews the character.
• Professional: Your ideal job / your biggest career challenge. (for business English)

Variations

• Celebrity Team Interview: each student invents a celebrity identity; others guess who after the interview.
• Timed follow-up rule: every panellist must ask at least one question; the first minute is rapid-fire.
• Record it: one panellist takes notes instead of asking; writes a 50-word profile as an artefact.

Tips

• Establish: the interviewee may say I'd rather not answer that and the panel must respect it. Removes the discomfort barrier.
• For shy students, pre-prep a few questions in writing. They participate more when they come with ammunition.
• Good for new groups — produces strong sense of having been heard.