Project Lesson 3: London interviews - Spontaneous/adaptive speaking & British politeness

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 3

Project Lesson 3

Spontaneous/adaptive speaking

British politeness

London Interviews

London interviews

• Your group must interview 2-3 people about your chosen topic
• Each group member must ask at least 3 questions per interviewee (follow-up questions do not count).
  
• Make time for your interviews in London!
  
• Keep in mind that one/some of your interviews might not work out... you may need to interview more than 2-3 people if an interview becomes a flop!  Use the free time you have in London to do these interviews
  
• Be creative!  Have fun!

How do you start a conversation with a complete stranger? What kinds of things could you say?

Small talk

Don't immediately start with your interview questions

Start off with some small talk

Examples:

- How are you doing today?

- Lovely weather, isn't it?

- You look lovely today sir

- I like the outfit you're wearing

Remember...

Your goal during the 2-3 interviews you carry out in London is to:

• have a natural and polite conversation
• react naturally and well to the person you are interviewing
• ask relevant, open questions and follow-up questions

• In short, have a natural conversation about your topic and be polite!
  

What do you think
spontaneous/adaptive speaking means?

Spontaneous/adaptive speaking

Spontaneous = spontaan

Dare to go off-script when necessary

Adaptive = aanpassend vermogen

"Go with the flow" in the conversation

Adaptive speaking

- Be able to adapt to the conversation

- Does the person not know anything/enough about your topic?  Don't worry!  Ask what else the person knows about something similar

- If the person brings up a different topic, go with the flow (adapt!) and continue asking about this (new) topic

- The speaking part (conversation) is more important than only focussing on your topic

What do you think "empathize" means?

Empathize

Empathize = zich inleven

If someone gives an unexpected answer, what do you do?

Empathize with them...

If someone gives a very short answer, what do you do?

Continue asking... Use words like: Why?  What?  When?  How?

If the conversation is going really badly, what do you do?

Find a polite way to end the conversation and find someone else

What do you know about football?

My dog just died.

What do the interviewers in the video clip do really well?

Clip interview

- They adapt to the conversation

- They ask follow-up questions

Example:

Interviewee: 'I'm about to take on some modeling jobs'

Interviewer: 'What type of modeling jobs?'

British politeness

By the end of the next few slides...

• you can describe British politeness
  
• you know how to correctly and politely interview someone
• you have practiced some of your interview questions
  

What do you notice about British politeness in the video?

Summary

• Say "sorry"

• Say "please" and "thank you"
• Stand in line (stand in the queue)
• Don't be too direct (like the Dutch can be!)
  

Source: https://www.londonschool.com/lsic/resources/blog/golden-rules-british-politeness-workplace/

How to conduct your interview

• Be polite and ask politely.  The person must first agree to do the interview before you start!
  
• Have a group member record the interview
• Both you and the other person should be visible
  
• If the person does not want to be filmed, no problem... Make sure you are visible and make sure we can hear the interview
  
• Don't make the interview too long
  
• Don't forget to say thank you!
  

Before you start your interview...
What could you say to someone on the street before you start your interview? How do you start up a conversation with someone "out of the blue?"

Example of what you could say to someone
on the street before you start your interview

Excuse me... would you mind if I ask you something?  I'm working on a group project for my high school English class in Holland. We're in London for a few days and need to interview someone about a particular topic.  Our topic is "XXX."  May I ask you a few questions about this topic and record our conversation?  Don't worry... the only person that will see this interview is my English teacher.

Wait for reaction... Positive? Go for it!  Negative? Move on to someone else.

Don't make the interview too long... Don't forget to say thank you!

Practice your interviews!

- Pair up with someone (from your group)

- One will be the interviewer, the other will be the interviewee.

After 3 minutes, switch roles

- Use the interview questions you prepared for your topic. The interviewee comes up with possible answers and the interviewer reacts to the answers

- The interviewee goes off-script and starts talking about something else.  The interviewer has to adapt to the conversation and go along with it

Extra videos on the next slides

If you have time left, watch the videos on the next slides:

1) Stand-up comedian about the British not being polite.

Beware... some explicit language (2 min.)

2) Tips about how to conduct an interview (2 min.)

Extra - contains some explicit language