What's the question?

It's suitable for teenage or adult students at A2 or above and takes around 40 minutes.

In the activity, Chatty magazine has sent one of its top reporters to interview Hollywood actor, Sam Jemson. Students are provided with two worksheets. Worksheet A contains 22 answers to questions asked during the interview. Students work in pairs to try and work out what the questions were according to Sam's answers.

Then students are given worksheet B, with the magazine article based on the answers to the questions on worksheet A. There are a number of factual mistakes in the article. Without worksheet A, students need to identify and correct the mistakes.

Procedure

• Divide the class into pairs. Make enough copies of both worksheets for each pair of students. Distribute copies of worksheet A.
• Introduce the topic and then give students a good 15 minutes to try and write down which questions were asked by the interviewer during the interview. Circulate, giving help and support where appropriate. At the end of the time allotted, elicit the questions for each of the answers on the sheet from the class, writing a correct example answer for each question on the board.
• Remind students that it's possible that an answer has more than one correct question.
• Next, ask students to put away worksheet A and then distribute copies of worksheet B. Explain the second task and then give students at least another 15 minutes to identify and correct the factual mistakes in the text. Circulate and give help again.
• Again, at the end of the task, elicit corrections from the class. Ask students to return to worksheet A to check their answers.
• Additionally, it could be a nice idea for students to practise their speaking ability by role-playing the interview with Sam. Ask them to swap roles, so each person gets to play Sam and the reporter respectively.     

Follow-up activity

Ask students to do some research on their favourite actor. This can be done in class if you have the facilities or set as homework. Ask them to write a short profile of the actor in their own words of between 80 and 100 words.