Fce Speaking Test

FCE SPEAKING TEST

How it's marked

Candidates take the speaking test in pairs or groups of three, throughout the test they are assessed on their individual performance and not in relation to each other. They are awarded marks by two examiners: an assessor and an interlocutor. The interlocutor awards a mark for the performance as a whole, using the Global Achievement scale. The assessor awards marks for five individual criteria:

• Grammatical Resource
• Lexical Resource
• Discourse Management
• Pronunciation
• Interactive Communication.

In order to do the speaking test, candidates must have studied the following semantic fields:

home town

transport

family

studies/ work

free time/ interests

holidays/ travel

learning English

future plans

sports

food and health

relationships

the media

the environment

money/ economy

IT (technology)

describing a person

PART 1: INTERVIEW (4 minutes)

Natural responses to personal questions are expected: socialising.

Vocabulary related to:home town

transport

family

studies/ work

free time/ interests

holidays/ travel

learning English

future plans

PART 2: LONG TURN (4 minutes)

This consists of a photograph description (1 minute each) plus a brief response from the other candidate. This part must show organisationand connected ideas so you should follow a planned structure, which must be different for each candidate.

1st Introductory sentence

“Well both pictures show.. (repeat what the examiner has said) but …A…B..”

“Although these are both photographs of…, they are very different because…”

“Neither/ Both of these (photograhs, jobs,holiday resorts…) looks/look very attractive because…”

2nd Sentences (3 or 4) comparing or contrasting the photographs

Since you have tocompare and contrast and NOT describe the photos, you could:

Describe briefly some features of one photo and then point out the differences in the other.

Choose two or three features (such as location, clothes and facts) to compare and contrast one by one. Use markers such as “First of all, Secondly, Then, Finally,” or “To begin with, In addition, Besides, Also, To finish with.”

Structures to express your impression:

“It looks…”

“It looks as if…”

“It seems (to be)…”

“It appears (tobe)…”

“It reminds me of…”

Structures to compare the photos:

“This…is more…/less…/___-er than …”

“This is … by far”

“…is a lot more…”

“This is not as… as…”

“While this…is..that…is…”

“This… is whereas that…is…”

Connectors: but/however/ on the one hand-on the other hand/ while/ whilst/ whereas.

3rd Final sentence

This is the personal comment or view the examiner has requested. He/She may ask you different questions, so listen carefully to the instructions:

“Which do you prefer?”

“Which do you find more attractive?”

“How would you like/ feel…?

“Have you ever been to a place/ in a situation like this?”

Structures you can use to round off your long turn:

“I think I prefer (doing)…to (doing)…because…”

“I think I would rather (do)…than (do)… because…”

“I think I would like to (do)… because…”

“I would love/ hate to (do)… because…”

“I would enjoy (doing)… because…”

“I wouldn’t mind (doing)… because…”

“I’ve never/ often been in a place/ situation like this…”

“I was once…”

When one candidate has finished his/her long turn, the other candidate is asked to make a brief personal comment (20 seconds!!).

PART 3: PAIR WORK (3 minutes)

This part consists of having a conversation with the other candidate. You have to talk with the other candidate and make a decision.

The candidates are given some material which engages them in tasks such as planning, exchanging ideas, expressing and justifying opinions, agreeing and/ or disagreeing, suggesting, speculating, evaluating, reaching a decision through negotiation, etc.

3 minutes (a 2-minute discussion followed by a 1-minute decision-making task)

The three minutes must be filled with speech not sentences!!

Starting a conversation:

“Shall we start?”

“Well, let’s begin…”

“Why don’t you/ I start…?

Expressing preferences:

“I prefer (doing)… to (doing)… because…”

“I would rather (do) … than (do) … because …”

“I would love/ hate to (do)… because…”

“ If I could choose, I would choose… because…”

Making suggestions:

“How/ What about…ing…?”

“Why don’t we(do)…?”

“Wouldn’t it be a good idea to (do)…?”

“If I were…., I would (do)…because…”

“Perhaphs we could (do)…”

Agreeing/disagreeing:

“So do I./Neither do I.”

“Yes I agree but for me… is more…”

“Yes that’s true.”

“I’m not sure about that.”

“That sounds fine.”

“That’s a good point.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

Speculating/ Giving impressions:

“Perhaps…”/ Modal verbs: could, may, might.

“It looks…”

“It looks as if…”

“It seems(to be)…”

“It appears (to be)…”

“It reminds me of…”

PART 4: DISCUSSION/ EXPRESSING OPINION (4 minutes)

Illustrate and justify your opinions!! (“…because…”, “for example…”)

This part is a discussion( of matters related to the theme of Part 3), so you shouldn’t sit and wait to be asked your opinion.

Opinions:

“I believe/ consider…”

“I am of the oipnion that…”

“From my point of view…”

“In my opinion…”

Agreeing/disagreeing: (as in part 3!)

“I agree up to a point…”

“Yes, defenitely”

“I agree completely”

“I am sorry but I don’t agree…”