The first interview: Initial contact

The first interview is like anyone’s first meeting, there’s a necessary, unavoidable initial contact. Then the first interview is used to begin to determine the learner’s possible approach, so it’s going to be used to elucidate the whys and wherefores, why they’re here, why they want to learn language X or language Y, what they’re going to do with it, what resources they have, what they like to do, what they don’t like to do, how they plan to learn from the outset, at what points we’re going to work. There’s also a whole explanation of what self-directed learning is all about, in particular an explanation of what the role of this interview we’re having is, it’s not a private lesson, it’s not an individual lesson, it contributes something else, So this contribution is in the area of when I’m going to work, how long I’m going to work, how much time I have to work, what my deadline is, what my constraints are, do I have to learn very quickly or do I have a project in three years’ time so I have time to see it through. Can I work in the morning, can I work in the evening, can I work at home, can I work in a resource centre? But the first interview is not intended to exhaust the question, it is intended to get the learning process underway, and to clarify the conditions for learning in a self-directed context.