FCE tips: speaking part 1: speaking about yourself

Aims to help students give information about themselves.

Tip 1

This part of the exam is mainly there to relax the students and start them talking about an easy and pleasant topic - themselves. It is important for the final mark but the real challenge is to be relaxed and sociable. Also, there are not separate marks for the separate sections, so if they start slowly they can make up for it later on.

Tip 2

Examiners usually ask questions to one candidate for one minute, and then switch to the other(s). The non-talking candidate should listen attentively. If they can prove they have been doing so by referring to their partner’s answers when speaking, all the better.

Tip 3

The topics that will usually be covered are family, work and education, hometown, leisure and future plans.

Tip 4

You can practise the various topics by brainstorming language for that topic area onto a spider diagram on the board and then getting students to ask each other questions for a few minutes using the vocabulary. Alternatively, they can prepare mini-presentations on, for example, their hobbies.

Tip 5

There will also often be a mix of past, present and future forms used. Speaking practise on all these will obviously be useful.

Tip 6

Basically, any getting to know you activities are good for this part of the exam, which makes for a good, fun first lesson. If you can slip in some diagnostic work on their language, even better.

Tip 7

The examiner generally starts each topic with a simple (even Yes/ No) question and then moves onto more difficult ones. Generally, if the students relax and react naturally they should have no problems - so no need to respond to ‘Do you have a big family?’ with a five minute speech!

FCE tips: speaking part 2: describing pictures

Aims to help students compare and contrast different pictures.

Tip 1

In the exam, the examiner will give one of the candidates two pictures. The first thing they will ask the candidate to do is to show the pictures to the other candidate(s). This means that everyone has seen the pictures and it is therefore perfectly acceptable to say 'this picture' and point. More complex language such as 'the top picture' or 'the former/ the latter' is, of course, even better.

Tip 2

The examiner will then give the candidate precise instructions about what they should say about the pictures. The instructions always have two parts, so students should listen very carefully.

Tip 3

If there is anything a student doesn't understand about a question, they should ask the examiner to repeat. If they still don't understand, they should ask again. They should remember that they are being tested on their speaking in this part of the exam, not their listening comprehension. However, one thing they are being scored on is their ability to actually answer the question they are asked.

Tip 4

Asking the examiner to repeat can actually be the perfect opportunity to show off some complex language - e.g. 'I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch the last part', 'If I can just check what you are saying, you'd like me to...', 'I'm not quite sure what (contrast) means', etc.

Tip 5

The examiner almost always asks the students to 'compare and contrast the two pictures'. They will never be asked to simply describe them. Any activities giving oral practice of comparing language (more than, less than, (not) as __________ as, , etc.) and contrasting language (although, whereas, however, etc.) are good practice for this.

Tip 6

The second part of the question is usually about giving some kind of opinion e.g. 'Compare and contrast the two holidays and say which you would prefer'. Language like 'in my opinion' and 'personally' can be very useful here.

Tip 7

Students should make sure they are talking to the examiner (and the other candidate) rather than to the picture! This can be practised in the classroom by getting students to turn over the picture once they have taken a glance at it, or even getting them to do a task with imaginary pictures.

Tip 8

The examiner will interrupt the student speaking after one minute, even if they are halfway through a sentence. Being interrupted is actually good, as it means they haven't run out of things to say.

Tip 9

As the examiner takes the photos away from the first candidate, they will ask the other candidate a question about those photos. Again, this is probably a question of opinion, e.g. 'Which holiday would most people prefer?’ This only requires a short answer, but is a perfect chance to show they have been listening to what their partner said, with language such as 'As (Juan) said......', or 'I agree entirely with (Lee Yan).'

FCE tips: speaking part 3: working together

Aims to help students to work co-operatively through speaking games.

Tip 1

The examiner will explain the speaking task as he/ she gives the associated visual prompt to the candidates (to share). Students will need to concentrate on listening to the task, and make sure they are not distracted at this stage by the picture.

Tip 2

The question always has at least 2 parts, and students should try to answer both/ all parts. They can discipline themselves (or their partners) by saying 'Perhaps we should move on and talk about...' A more authoritarian practice activity for class is to give students a two-part task and shout 'NOW' when they are halfway through their time, forcing them to switch.

Tip 3

The worst thing in the exam is silence. If students really have no opinion, they should say 'I really have no opinion'. A nasty but occasionally necessary trick is to start off the speaking by asking their partner 'What do you think?’

Tip 4

In this part of the exam the speaking is between the two (occasionally three) students only. The examiner will often look out the window and pretend not to listen. This is to show students not to address the examiner! The examiner does such a convincing part of not listening to them that the first question of part 4 is often 'What did you decide?'

Tip 5

Students should try to make sure the conversation is split 50/50 between the two students. If someone's partner really won't talk or let them talk, then it is only the uncooperative student that will be penalized. However, such an (unusual) circumstance is the best opportunity to show polite interruption and other turn-taking skills. These skills can be quite fun to practise in the classroom. In addition to the ideas in the lesson plan, the Interrupting Game can be quite fun. The idea is that one person tries to complete a story/ anecdote and the other people (politely) interrupt him/ her by asking for additional information or clarification.

Tip 6

The candidates are being marked on their ability to work their way towards a conclusion, even though they do not have to agree. This means argumentative students will need to learn to agree even when they don't really, or 'agree to disagree'. This can be practised by giving students exam questions and getting them to alternately agree with everything each other says, disagree with everything, or (for fun) have one person agreeing with everything and the other disagreeing. This is similar to how turn taking is practised in the lesson plan.

Tip 7

The language students often lack for this part of the exam is that of ‘polite disagreement’. This is also a matter of cultural awareness. It is very common in English to start disagreeing with language of agreement - ‘Yes but..’, ‘I see your point but..’, ‘I’d agree up to a point but..’

FCE tips: speaking part 4: 3 way conversation

Aims to help students with turn taking and giving opinions.

Tip 1

This task leads 'naturally' on from the working together task in FCE speaking part 3. As the interlocutor has been pretending not to listen to the candidates during part 3, the first question of part 4 will often be 'What have you decided?'. The examiner will then go on to ask the candidates more general questions based on the topic of part 3. For example, if in part 3 the students decided which poster to use for an ad campaign, it might be followed by questions on advertising such as 'Do you think poster campaigns are effective?'.

Tip 2

To help students to anticipate the questions in part 4, it can be useful to brainstorm possible questions after practising part 3.

Tip 3

Unlike in part 3, this is a three-way spoken interaction. As in the other parts of the speaking exam, it is meant to be as natural as possible. Therefore, students can comment on what the other candidate has said and (politely!) interrupt etc. like in a semi-formal situation such as business meeting.

Tip 4

Students often ask whether the questions will be aimed at both of them or specifically to one person. The answer is that it depends - on the examiner and on the candidates. An examiner will often choose to direct the questions if one candidate has been dominating the conversation too much. It is good to tell students this if they are doing the exam with someone they don't know as their partner and they are worried about how much they will be allowed to speak.

Tip 5

Students are often uncertain about is how long they have to talk about each one of the examiner's questions. This part generally lasts 4 minutes: the examiner, however, has a certain amount of flexibility on when to stop part 3. The examiner has about 6 or 7 questions to last this time, so two word answers for each one are going to lead to a very unhappy examiner! Not having much to say on one or two questions is no big deal, however. At the other extreme, if the candidates find one of the questions so fascinating that they can talk about it in a natural way for 4 minutes this is a good (if unlikely) thing, as it saves them from any more tricky questions the examiner has on his/ her list.

Tip 6

The functional language of asking for and giving opinions, including some agreement and disagreement language is useful for this part of the exam. Any speaking tasks involving giving opinions can be good, fun practise for this- e.g. debates. See FCE speaking part 4 lesson plan for another example of an opinions game.

FCE tips: speaking part 5: the whole paper

Aims to help students understand common topics found in the exam.

Tip 1

Students have to answer the actual question that is asked! If they don't understand, they should say so (as many times as necessary).

Tip 2

Students must listen to their partner(s). They can show they are doing so by reacting to/ commenting on what they say.

Tip 3

Occasionally, three students have to do the speaking exam together instead of two. Each student will still have exactly the same amount of time to show what they can do, so the test takes more like 20 minutes rather than the usual 14.

Tip 4

Body language is an important part of communication. Students should keep eye contact (i.e. look at the people, not the pieces of paper) and feel free to use their hands. They should not fidget (as it can distract from what they are saying), so if they generally play with their pen/ earrings/ bracelet when they are nervous, they should leave them at home. Similarly, avoid chewing gum, hats and dark glasses.

Tip 5

Grammatical accuracy is only one small part of your mark - fluency is just as important. So unless students think that they haven't been understood, there is no need for them to correct themselves.

Tip 6

On the day(s) before the exam, students should speak and listen to as much English as possible. It will probably be too late to do much exam practice, so just chatting with friends or watching an English film is just as useful.

Tip 7

Finally, students should be confident and act natural. Most people find this the easiest part of the exam. If students talk just like they talk to their classmates during pair work, they will have no problem. Many teachers consider this part of the exam to be a whole level easier than other parts such as the Use of English.

Tip 8

If there is time to cover vocabulary or topic-based work in class or for homework, it is best to cover the topics that often come up in this part of the exam.