Spiderman, Batman and the FCE interview

The FCE exams are fast approaching and that means getting students ready for their interviews. The problem is that after you've done the format a few times the students start to get bored and their answers become wooden and stilted. So to liven up the whole procedure I've been playing with a few ideas that spark interest.

Part one

In this part of the FCE, CAE and CPE exams the students is expected to give information about themselves. they are asked things such as;

Where are you from?
What do you do for a living?
What do you like about where you live?
Do you have plans for the future?

Instead of asking about themselves, students can answer as if they were;

1 - A famous person.
2 - Somebody else from the class?
3 - A super hero
4 - A character from a fairy tale/movie/book.

Part two.

Instead of the usual stock photos choose two photographs of

1 - Super heroes
2 - The class at tho different times during the school year.
3 - You at two different stages of your life.
4 - A recent news story.

Part three

Ask your students to think of the different powers that super heroes have e.g. invisibility, flight etc. Write these on the board. Divide them into pairs and ask them to either rank them in order of importance or choose the four they'd most like to have.


Part four

In this part of the FCE exam the questions are usually based on the topic discussed in part three. So try these;

1 - What do super heroes do for a living?
2 - What problems do the husbands/wives of super heroes face?
3 - If you had super powers would you use them to make money?
4 - What disadvantages would your powers bring you?