Unit 2: Interviewing
Conducting an interview
Proficiency Objectives
- conduct or participate in interviews.
Content Objectives
- write a list of appropriate topics/questions to address in an interview about religion.
- conduct or participate in interviews about religion.
Jump to Tips for instructors
Exercises for classroom learners:
1. Imagine you have been hired by Swahili magazine to write a general interest piece about religion in your country.
- Write a list in Swahili of 10-20 topics about which you would like to ask people.
- In pairs, audio-record a 20-minute interview in Swahili with your classmate using your list of topics.
- For homework, write up a one-page article in Swahili about what you learned and include at least two quotations from your audio-recording.
- Reflect on how the interview went. Are there any topics you should have asked about but didn’t? Any you asked about that you should have skipped or asked differently? After you have also been interviewed by a classmate, reflect on what it is like to be interviewed and whether it might impact the way you conduct interviews in the future. Write a short paragraph in Swahili about what you might do differently in the future.
2. Repeat the activity but this time the interviewee should pretend to be an East African. The interviewee should take some time in advance to plan out their character, or the teacher can assign characters. Before class, research your character’s religion and where s/he is from, and familiarize yourself with any vocabulary you will need to answer questions about your character and his/her religious beliefs.
Exercises for independent learners:
1. Either with a conversation partner or in an appropriate online Swahili space such as the Dini/Imani forum of Jamii Forums, find a Swahili-speaker who is willing to be interviewed about some religious topic. You can do the interview itself in person, via Skype, or if necessary in a typed exchange. If the interview is in person or via Skype, ask permission to audio-record it.
- Write a list in Swahili of 10-20 topics about which you would like to ask people.
- Conduct the interview in Swahili with whoever has agreed to do so.
- Write up a one-page article in Swahili about what you learned and include at least two quotations from your interviewee. Consider “publishing” it somewhere, like on a blog or personal website, so that Swahili-speakers might find it and leave comments.
- Reflect on how the interview went. Are there any topics you should have asked about but didn’t? Any you asked about that you should have skipped or asked differently? Write a short paragraph in Swahili about what you might do differently in the future.
2. As an exchange with the person you interviewed, invite them to interview you on any topic that interests them. Reflect on what it is like to be interviewed and whether it might impact the way you conduct interviews in the future.
