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A business radio interview

Becoming your own boss

What are the pros and cons of being your own boss? What are your short-term and long-term goals as a company? What are your company's values? And your biggest challenge?

In this mission 2 you will take part in a radio interview to ask for and give information about your company.

To do this, you will work on listening, writing, and speaking, and find out about experiences from other businesses worldwide.

At the end of this mission you will have:

  • found out about the track record of other businesses;
  • learnt strategies for effective interviewing;
  • interviewed fellow entrepreneurs;
  • given information about your company's experiences.
Radio microphone
Unknown author. Untitled (CC0)

LET’S TALK! Discuss the following questions with your classmates:

  • What are the most popular businesses in your town?
  • How long have these businesses been open?
  • What is the key to their success?
  • What kind of challenges or difficulties do you think they face on a daily basis?

To get started, watch this video about the biggest challenges for small business and answer the questions. 

KochiesBiz. What are the biggest challenges for small business? (Licencia estándar de YouTube)
  • What kind of business do the people in the video have?
  • What are the main challenges mentioned by the freelancers in running their businesses?

A business interview

It’s time to learn about other business experiences and work. Comparing business models is key to success and could help us to take the right steps. 

Check out the LearnEnglishTeens website to listen to a business interview with the creators of a popular app and do the comprehension activities to improve your listening skills.  

A business interview
Mohamed Hassan. Untitled (CC0)

We can use different verb tenses to talk about our previous experiences, background, current work, and our company's philosophy and main characteristics. As you saw in the previous mission, we use the present simple to talk about present facts and repeated or regular actions. However, there are more verb tenses you might need to use when talking about your company's work. 

Present Continuous

You can use the present continuous to talk about temporary situations, definite future plans, or actions in progress at the moment. At 'Perfect English Grammar-Present Continuous' you can read more about how to use this tense to talk about your company's current work and plans. 

Past Simple

Besides, if you want to talk about your company's history and background, you can use the past simple tense. It is mainly used with finished actions, states, or habits in the past. Read more about it at 'Perfect English Grammar - Past Simple'. 

Present Perfect

On the other hand, you can also use the present perfect to describe your past experiences, recent events, or to express how long you have been working. Check out the 'Perfect English Grammar-Present Perfect' website to find out more about its usage and examples. 

Now that you know how to use them, read the business interview transcript and identify the abovementioned verb tenses. 

Play this Baamboozle to test your knowledge.

Getting down to business

It's time to get down to business! 

Now that you have learnt about other job careers and listened to a radio interview to a company founder, it is time to prepare the questions you would like to ask your business partners to get information about their company's professional background and projects.

To do so, you can start by grouping them into different categories: 

  1. The company: background and introduction. Ask for information to gain a better understanding of the company's history, mission, values, and identity. 
  2. Role and responsibilities. Ask for information that helps you understand the duties and company's work. 
  3. The team. Ask for information to get to know the members of the company and their role. 
  4. Previous experiences. Ask for information about the company's achievements, past experiences and lessons learnt. 
  5. Future challenges and plans. Ask for information to learn about the company's short-term and long-term goals and strategies for the future. 

These categories can help you structure your interview questions and cover a range of important topics when discussing the business and the interviewee's personal experiences and insights. 

Would you add any other category that you find interesting or noteworthy? Discuss with your classmates and make a list of 10 questions to include in your interview. 

Are you ready for the interviews?

A key strategy for an effective interview has to do with intonation. Intonation is very important in communication, since it can express the speaker's attitude or feelings. Therefore, before conducting the interviews, take a look at this video and learn about how to use intonation in your questions.

Laurensenglishcorner. Intonation In Questions Up or Down? | Learn English | Lauren's English Corner (Licencia estándar de YouTube)

A radio interview

It’s time to conduct your radio interviews!

Now that you have learnt the important aspects to take into account in a business interview, it is time to put everything into practice. In this final task, you will work in groups of three to participate in a radio show and talk about your company. To do so, you will use the questions worked on previously. 

Radio accessories
Unknown author. Untitled (CC0)

Take it in turns to interview your classmates and ask for information about their company based on the questions they have prepared. Do not forget to use your intonation strategies here. Then be ready to answer the questions about your own company. 

Remember that your will have to record your interviews so that you can upload them to your Instagram business account. This will help to promote your business in your community and publicize your business project and work. 

To evaluate your task, take a look at the "Rubric to assess a radio interview" your teacher will use when assessing your performance (Download editable file/Download pdf file).

This will help you know how to do a great job!

Learning diary

It's time to continue with your portfolio. Remember it helps you reflect on what you are learning and, most important, what the best way for learning is. 

You will create a new section entitled "A business radio interview”. You will update it with your work and reflect on your learning using the following questions:

  • What did I do?
  • When did I do it?
  • How did I work, individually, in pairs or in groups?
  • How did I feel working in that way?
  • How well/badly did it go?
  • What did I learn with this task?
  • How will I use it in the future?
  • What do I have to improve?
  • What strategies will I use in the future to improve it?

Remember to update the glossary and grammar section with the new words and grammar structures you have learnt. 

The "Rubric to assess a portfolio" (note) will help you design your learning diary (Download editable file/Download pdf file).

Do not forget it would be great if you shared these feelings and thoughts with your classmates. You will have 10 or 15 minutes to complete this part.

If you are working on a printed portfolio, the aspect "USE OF DIGITAL TOOL" does not apply.

Creado con eXeLearning (Ventana nueva)