Tell Me About Yourself: A B1–B2 ESL Interview Lesson
“Tell me about yourself” looks like an easy question until a student has to decide what to include. Some give a complete life story. Others produce a list of adjectives with no evidence. This lesson gives adult B1–B2 learners a way to select information for a particular role, then practise an introduction that can survive a follow-up question.
Plan for 60 minutes with pairs or small groups. The target is not a universal script or an exact speaking speed. By the end, students should be able to connect a current or recent activity, one relevant example, and a reason for applying. A 45–75 second introduction is a useful classroom constraint; it is not a rule about how every employer conducts interviews.
Prepare the task and protect the choice of content
Print or display the role and candidate cards below. Give each student six small slips of paper or six numbered lines on a page. They will use these to sort possible details before drafting. You also need a timer and the four-part feedback checklist near the end of this lesson.
Tell students that an interview introduction is a selected professional account, not an invitation to disclose everything about themselves. They may practise with an invented candidate, an anonymized experience, or their own history. No one needs to discuss family circumstances, health, exact age, or a difficult employment gap to participate in this language activity.
Write the task on the board: “Help the listener understand why your experience is relevant to this role.” Ask students which word matters most. There is no single correct answer, but relevant should emerge in the discussion. This shifts their attention from trying to sound impressive to helping another person understand a connection.
For a one-to-one online lesson, put the cards in a shared document. Ask the learner to move sentences into three boxes. If editing tools create extra difficulty, let them say the sentence letters aloud while you move them. The sorting task should test relevance, not confidence with software.
Role card and candidate cards
Role: Scheduling Assistant at Harbour Skills Centre. The assistant coordinates course bookings, replies to routine enquiries, and tells teachers when a timetable changes. The team wants accurate records, clear written messages, and a willingness to check unclear information. The role includes learning a new scheduling tool.
Candidate 1: Mina. Mina is a receptionist at a sports centre. She updates class bookings and answers questions at the desk. When a class time changed last month, she checked the new time with the instructor and sent an update to the booked participants. She wants more experience organizing adult courses. She has not used Harbour's scheduling software.
Candidate 2: Dani. Dani is finishing a college course in administration and volunteers at a weekend community club. Dani organizes the volunteer rota and checks that each session has enough helpers. After a volunteer became unavailable, Dani contacted two other helpers and confirmed a replacement. Dani wants a first paid coordination role and is interested in adult education.
These are fictional practice profiles. Neither is the “better person.” They provide different routes to relevant evidence: previous paid work and study plus volunteering. Tell students not to import invented achievements from these cards into their own applications.
Minutes 0–10: hear the problem before teaching the structure
Ask students to give a partner a short answer to the target question using either profile. The listener writes the role they think the candidate wants and one useful fact about them. If they cannot identify either, they ask one question. Do not score this baseline; keep it as material for comparison at the end.
Read this deliberately weak answer: “My name is Mina. I am a very friendly and motivated person. I like sport, films, travel, and learning new things. I have many skills and I am a perfectionist. I want a good job where I can develop myself.” Ask pairs what they learned that would help Harbour decide what to ask next.
Expected observations include a lack of specific work evidence and no clear link to scheduling. Friendly is not forbidden, and hobbies are not inherently wrong. The problem is that this answer uses its limited time without showing the relevant work described in the profile. Avoid teaching students that certain personality words are magically good or bad.
Minutes 10–20: sort details by relevance and support
Give students these six details and ask them to choose three or four for Mina's introduction:
- A: “I update class bookings at a sports centre.”
- B: “I enjoy travelling whenever I can.”
- C: “I checked a timetable change and sent an update to participants.”
- D: “I am an expert in your scheduling software.”
- E: “I would like to apply my coordination experience to adult courses.”
- F: “I answer questions from visitors and check details with instructors.”
Students make three groups: useful for this role, possibly useful in another conversation, and unsupported. Answer key: A, C, E, and F are supported and relevant. B may be appropriate in informal conversation but does not address this brief. D is unsupported and contradicts the card. A student can choose A, C, and E without F because A and F partly overlap.
Ask students to explain one omission. This is essential: selecting an answer is easier than knowing why it fits. Then replace the role with “activity host who discusses travel with guests” and ask whether B might become more relevant. The lesson is about purpose and context, not a permanent ban on personal interests.
Minutes 20–30: build and notice a model
Offer this three-part planning frame: where I am now or what I have been doing; one experience that connects to the role; why this next step makes sense. The frame is optional support, not an obligation to begin every answer with the same phrase. Students can change the order if the result remains clear.
Model for Mina: “I'm a receptionist at a sports centre, where I update class bookings and help visitors with enquiries. That has given me practice checking details and explaining changes clearly. For example, when a class moved to a different time, I confirmed the new arrangement with the instructor and sent the participants an update. I'm interested in your scheduling role because I'd like to use that experience with adult courses and develop my coordination skills.”
Ask students to label the three parts and underline the concrete example. The example begins with the changed class time and ends with the update. The model does not claim that everyone attended, that complaints fell, or that Mina already knows the new software. Those facts are not supplied.
Model for Dani: “I'm finishing an administration course and volunteering at a community club. I organize the volunteer rota, so I have practice checking availability and confirming changes. Recently, I helped arrange a replacement when one helper couldn't attend. I'd like to build on that experience in a paid scheduling role, and your focus on adult learning interests me.”
Invite students to find similarities in function without forcing identical wording. Dani does not need to apologize for having less paid experience. The answer explains what Dani has done and why it connects. The class should evaluate that explanation, rather than inventing a hiring preference for one career path.
Minutes 30–40: move from a written paragraph to speaking notes
Students draft an introduction of about five sentences. Partners mark any phrase that claims more than the candidate card supports. They also circle repeated information. Give students a short revision window before speaking, so peer feedback has a visible consequence.
Next, require a keyword version on the six slips. Mina might use reception, bookings, timetable change, checked, update, adult courses. Students turn over the full paragraph and speak from the keywords. The listener writes the action they heard, not a list of grammatical errors. If the listener misses the action, the speaker changes the organization or explains the unfamiliar word.
Work on one language issue that affects the message. For example, contrast “I work there for two years” with “I've worked there for two years” when the job continues. Do not overload the activity with a full tense review. If a student chooses “I started there two years ago,” that is also a clear way to communicate the same timeline.
Allow a brief pause between the current-role sentence and the example. Ask partners whether they can hear the transition. Speed alone is not the goal; the listener should be able to tell when the speaker moves from a general responsibility to a particular event.
Minutes 40–52: change the listener's question
Run three short rounds. In round one, the interviewer asks the original question. In round two, they ask “Which part of your experience is most useful for this job?” In round three, they ask “What would you need to learn here?” The candidate uses the same evidence bank but changes the answer to match the question.
For the third prompt, Mina might say, “I'd need to learn your scheduling software. I already use a booking calendar, but I would want to practise your process and check that I'm using it correctly.” Dani might discuss learning the centre's booking procedures. Both are legitimate if they stay within the profile.
Teach the interviewer to ask one specific follow-up: “What did the update include?” or “How did you confirm the replacement?” The candidate may say that the practice card does not provide that information, then explain what they would check. Do not reward students for inventing extra facts merely to keep speaking.
Minutes 52–60: assess, revise, and choose homework
Use four checks: relevant to the role; supported by an example; organized so the listener can follow; responsive to the actual question. Give each check 0 for not yet demonstrated, 1 for partly clear or prompted, and 2 for independently clear. This is feedback on the task, not a prediction of employment outcomes.
An introduction full of fluent generalities might score well for organization but low for evidence. A slower answer with a clear example may score well for relevance and evidence. Ask observers to quote a phrase supporting each judgment. “Confident” without an observable explanation is not enough.
Students repeat their weakest section after choosing one improvement. Then compare it with the opening baseline. Ask, “What can the listener understand now that was missing before?” For homework, students adapt the introduction to a different public role description, or use Dani's profile if they prefer not to use personal information.
Adaptations and a longer interview sequence
For B1 students, supply verb choices such as organize, check, explain, confirm, and learn. Let them use four connected sentences and give the interviewer a printed question. For B2 students, introduce a changed job requirement and ask them to remove one previously relevant detail. In mixed groups, both levels can use the same role; change the amount of planning support rather than asking stronger students to dominate the interview.
For experienced professionals, replace the reception profile with a project from their own field, keeping confidential names and figures out. For new graduates, permit study and volunteer examples. Neither adaptation changes the core task: make a truthful connection that a listener can follow.
Continue with the full interview lesson plan when students are ready to practise a complete exchange. For a longer teaching sequence, review Teach: Job Interview English or inspect its first free lesson.