FCE SPEAKING

FCE SPEAKING PART 1 : INTERVIEW

Format of FCE Speaking Part One/ What students must
do in FCE Speaking Part One
The FCE speaking test is held with two examiners, only one of whom
speaks, and two or (very rarely) three candidates. This first part of the
exam could hardly be easier in terms of what students need to do, which is
simply to listen to and answer the personal questions that the examiner
asks them. The examiner almost always makes it obvious who should
answer at each point, and certainly if there is any confusion about that.
After three minutes (or five minutes with three candidates), the examiner
will move onto Speaking Part Two.
Typical topics include friends and family, hometown, food and drink, free
time and hobbies, work, studies, technology, language learning,
accommodation, and future plans. There will probably also be at least one
more unusual topic that has yet to appear in past exams, such as perhaps
dieting or keeping in touch with people. The examiner will ask one or two
questions on one topic, then switch and do the same for one or two more
topics. Unlike some exams such as IELTS, the examiner doesnt announce
changes in topic.
The examiner seems to have freedom whether to ask the same questions
to both candidates or different questions on the same topic to each
candidate, and some examiners seem to mix the two ways of asking
questions up. If the same question is asked to the second candidate, it
could just be And you?, or the question might be repeated. When
questions are repeated, the examiner will obviously make an effort to
ensure that one candidate isnt unfairly targeted by being the person who
answers first more often than their partner.
The questions on one topic usually consist of one present tense question
and one with a slightly trickier tense, e.g. a past tense question, a future
one, or even one with more complex forms like Second Conditional and
other Unreal Past situations. The most common tenses are, in approximate
order:

Present Simple
Would like etc for desires
Simple Past
Going to, plan to etc for plans
Will

I couldnt find any examples of Have you (recently/ ever)? questions

in the tests I looked at, perhaps because it is difficult to design questions to
which all candidates can give a reasonable length answer with that tense.
However, the Present Perfect tense could come up in answers if the
answer to When did you last? is Actually, Ive done it today. The
same thing is true of Present Continuous for arrangements in exchanges
like Do you have any plans to? I do. In fact, Im meeting my friend this
afternoon and
If a student doesnt understand a question, the examiner will repeat the
question more slowly with the same wording, then reword it (in a way
which is written on their script) if the student still doesnt understand. If the
student still doesnt understand after all that, the examiner will simply move
onto another question.
The examiner might cut a candidate short if the answer to the last question
is very long (as timing is very tight, so this is not a bad sign for the
candidate!), then they will move straight onto Speaking Two (long turn with
two photos each).
What students need to do to do well in FCE Speaking Part One
There arent separate marks for each part of the exam, so it can help more
nervous students to see this as a warm up for the rest of the exam. There
are also things that they can do and that can be practised in class to help
them impress the examiners from the very beginning of the test, however.
There is no need for students to interrupt each other and try to turn this
part of the exam into a discussion, as is possible sometimes in Speaking
Part Four (discussion questions), and in fact it would be rather unnatural to
do so when the questions are in the format And you, Hang Seul? What do
you do to keep fit? However, it is natural for students to mention when
their answer is similar to or different from their partners with phrases like
Like/ Unlike Jonathan, I and Almost the same as Yukiko, but
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The question I get asked most often by students is how long their answers
should be, to which I also answer be natural and add concentrate on
communicating. This means that Peacehaven wouldnt really be really
communicating if someone asks Where are you from? (because no one
has ever heard of my hometown and so learn nothing from just its name)
and Peacehaven, which is a small seaside town which was founded in the
early 1920s by Lord Sutton. Most people there are retired or work in the
tourist industry, would be unnatural. Having said that, because there are
no follow up questions if their first answer is short they should probably
make some effort to avoid very short answers. It depends on both the
question and students personal information, but one or two fairly short
sentences is usually about the right length.
Students sometimes also wonder about how formal they should be in the
exam, to which the answer is normal conversational English, i.e. avoiding
forms which are only usually written (e.g. dislike and with regards to)
but not drifting into slang, and certainly not swearing or blaspheming.
Students sometimes also ask me if they can use their imaginations in this
part of the exam. As the examiner is not going to send a private detective
around to their house to check the truth of what they said (or even look at
their Facebook page), they can of course lie. However, I recommend
against it as it goes against the whole point of communicating in the exam.
It is also likely to lead to less complex language than an honest answer,
e.g. the lie The day before yesterday being much more basic in language
terms than the true answer Actually, I cant remember the last time. It
might have been back in my elementary school days.
Be natural and Communicate also work for what students should do if
they dont understand the question, in this case leading to always saying if
they dont understand and making such statements or questions as
specific as possible, e.g. You said something like jowging. What does
that mean? rather than just Pardon? As listening comprehension is
tested in the actual Listening paper rather than in the speaking, I always
tell students that such situations are actually a good opportunity to show
the examiners that they can really communicate with a good range of
language that is really adapted to the communicative situation that they are
in. A good specific question can also stop the examiner just repeating the
question with the same wording.
There is also a fair chance that one or more questions are ambiguous, e.g.
for many students the very common question Where are you from? could
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refer to where they were born or where they grew up. The two options in
that case are to check which the examiner means (although they usually
just say Either one is fine) or to communicate the ambiguity in your
answer with phrases like If you mean and There are two possible
answers to that for me,.
There is also a small chance that the questions might not match the
situation of one of the candidates. The two options are similar to that
suggested for ambiguous questions above, in this case being stating the
problem (e.g. Sorry, I cant answer that question because) or
answering a closely related question (e.g. I never actually went to school,
but my parents taught me)
Students can often just follow the tense of the question in their answer,
although there might be times when their own personal information doesnt
match that tense in exchanges like What are you going to do tonight? I
have no idea. Ill probably just go home and watch television. Tenses
which they are most likely to use are given above, with Present Simple by
far the most common. As well as the difference between that tense and
Present Continuous, students really need to understand the differences
between language for future arrangements, plans, predictions and desires.
Related language they are likely to need includes time expressions (once
every two weeks, the week before last, in the last couple of days, etc).
There isnt much functional language in this part of the exam except for
comparing with the previous speaker and checking/ confirming what
questions mean, but students will need to talk about likes and dislikes, and
use a range of positive and negative language more generally.
As the topics are fairly fixed, students can gain a lot from looking up and
learning vocabulary to describe their own accommodation, education, etc.
Students can sometimes benefit from being told to look at the person
speaking, especially their partner when they are answering the questions.
This is likely to make them listen to their partner more carefully (useful if
they want to mention similarities in their own answers) and can also relax
them as it makes the atmosphere more like a conversation and less like an
exam.

Classroom practice of FCE Speaking Part One

This part of the exam is quite similar to simple GTKY (getting to know you)
and needs analysis discussion questions like those often used in first
classes and indeed when we meet people for the first time outside class
too. I like to start courses with questions used in this quite chatty way so
that I can tell students If you can just relax and answer as naturally as
that, youll pass no problem! However, once this point is made and their
confidence is duly boosted, perhaps the most important thing when
practising this part of the exam is to make it as realistic as possible. I
therefore do almost all practice of personal questions in threes or fours
with one person as the examiner, usually also doing several topics each
time in a similar way to the exam as well. If I want to do more intensive
practice of one likely topic in the exam, e.g. answering personal questions
about food, we move on from that to more realistic practice with some
questions about food again and then some other topics. It is also worth
keeping the timing and number of topics realistic, and I also tell the student
with the examiner role to mix up how they ask the questions (some to both
students in turn, some to only one student).
Teachers can write these kinds of questions for almost any kind of topic
that comes up in class, but make sure you also make the questions
authentic in terms of anyone being able to give a medium length answer
without the need for a follow up question. One way of making them
authentic is to use a list of question stems collected from past papers, such
as these I found in FCE 4 (CUP):
Are/ Do any of your friends?
Do you have any plans for the future?
Do you like to?
Do you plan to?
Do you prefer to or?
Do you spend a lot of time?
Do you think in the future?

Do you use to?

Do you usually (on holiday)?
Do you every day?
Do you the same as your parents?
How do you prefer to?
Is there a that you would really like to?
Is there anything you would really like to in the future?
Tell us about the last time you/ Tell us about the last you
What do you like (most) about?
What is your favourite?
What sort of do you prefer?
Whats the most interesting thing?
Would you prefer to or?
Students can also use these question stems to make their own questions
to ask each other.
The next most useful thing to do is get your class watching or listening to
other candidates answering the questions, to critique their answers and
pick up useful tips and phrases. Things good and bad that they can watch
out for include:
-

Simple or no language to show not understanding the question

Good language to show exactly what is not understood
Answers which dont match the questions
Answers which are unnaturally long or short
Interrupting

Mentioning what the other candidate has said, or missing obvious

chances to do so
Silence
Dealing with questions which are ambiguous
Dealing with difficult questions, e.g. pausing for thought
Dealing with questions which dont (quite) match the situation of the
candidate
Nice high level language connected to the topics
Flat intonation
Dealing with wanting to say something that they dont know or cant
remember the English name for
Its not really possible to get students using the actual scoring criteria to
judge candidates in this part of the exam, as discourse management and
interactive communication hardly come up at all. You could create a similar
list of criteria for students to judge from including things above like really
answering the question and suitable length, but this might be off-putting
for students if you have already told them to think of this part of the exam
as a warm up. In a similar way, its probably not worth getting students
listening out for errors, as this will probably make them too sensitive about
this comparatively unimportant part of their language (as many of them are
already).
-

All the above is probably less heavy than it sounds, given the fact that
students get to talk about themselves something we all love doing!
However, there are also games that you can play which are closely related
to this part of the exam. My favourites involve throwing dice to decide the
topic and/ or time of the questions which will be asked, for example having
to ask a question about their hobbies in the distance past if they throw two
ones. A one of way of dividing up the times is:
1 = distant past
2 = past
3 = present and past
4 = right now
5 = present habits
6 = future

You can also exchange some of them for past habits, recent past, near
future, distant future etc, or you could go with functions of tenses like
plans and experiences.
Something well worth doing after that game, and for this part of the exam
more generally, is a tense review. As mentioned above, students most
need Present Simple for routines and a range of future forms, plus time
expressions. Matching up sentence halves then brainstorming questions to
get those responses is a good way of doing all these things.
Another way of approaching grammar is to get them to correct typical
mistakes in student responses. To save them concentrating on grammar
too much, I tend to mix a few sentences with grammar mistakes up with
many more examples with more important problems like false friends,
Franglais/ Janglish etc forms, and minimal pairs. You can also use these
sentences to introduce useful language they might need like third floor
apartment, sitcom and Im a big fan of
Another way of introducing lots of useful vocabulary for this part of the
exam is something I call a List Dictation. The teacher reads out a list of
tricky but useful vocabulary for the exam until one of the students works
out that the thing that list has in common is that they are all related to
media, positive words, etc. The same thing continues with other lists,
then students label the lists on a worksheet and test each other in pairs or
small groups.
You can also do more intensive practice of the limited amount of functional
language that could come up in this part of the exam. For the most
common of those functions, you could force them to always confirm the
meanings of the questions before they answer them (probably after giving
them a list of questions which could be considered ambiguous like Where
are you from? and Do you have any short term plans?). You can also do
the same thing for other functions by getting them to always compare with
their partners response to the same question with In a similar way to
etc and forcing them to always (slightly) contradict the question with
Actually, etc. Youll need to carefully select the questions in all cases,
and with Actually, etc you might need to let them use their
imaginations.
The intensive practice of Like etc can be one way of tying Speaking
Part One in with other parts of the exam by getting students to report back
to class similarities and differences between them, perhaps with the rest of
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the class commenting on their own similarities and differences related to

that thing to give them a reason to listen. You can then elicit language for
comparing and contrasting before moving onto comparing and contrasting
pictures in FCE Speaking Part Two.
Another obvious tie in is with Speaking Part Four, e.g. moving from
personal questions on media to more discussion-style questions on the
same topic. You can also design Use of English-style exercises for useful
language for this part of the exam, e.g. multiple choice questions with the
distracters being false friends etc or open cloze for the language of likes
and dislikes. Is it also possible to write a task that looks like FCE Writing
Part One (letter or email) for further practice of talking about themselves by
making it a penfriend letter, although this makes it rather unrealistic
practice of that part of the exam as the real tasks always demand much
more functional language (inviting, politely turning down invitations,
recommending, etc).
Read more at http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/how-to-teach-cambridge-first-certificate-fce-speakingpart-one.html#cSXgYrm2XgO3g2fL.99

FCE SPEAKING PART 2 : INDIVIDUAL LONG TURN

What students need to do to do well in FCE Speaking
Part Two
The first thing to notice about the questions is that the word describe is
not used at all. Therefore in the first (and main) part of the speaking task,
the candidate should concentrate on comparing the two pictures as they
have been told to. This can, and probably should, include talking about
both similarities and differences, and I recommend that every sentence or
pair of sentences that they come up with should compare or contrast the
two photos. It is also theoretically possible to describe one picture for
twenty seconds or so, then switch to the other and compare and contrast it
with the first one. However, timing is difficult when you do it this way and
its almost impossible to make sure that the things you say about the first
picture are things that turn out to be relevant when comparing the second
picture with it. In my experience, students trying to do this are also much
more likely to run out time before even getting onto the second question.

These compare not describe instructions mean that phrases sometimes

taught in FCE books like in the top right corner and in the background
are of very little use and sometimes actually dangerous as they usually
lead to descriptions which are impossible to compare with the other
picture. Instead, what students most need is language to compare and
contrast. In approximate order of how useful it is likely to be in this part of
the exam, language that should be taught and practised includes:

1.Both and/ and both

2., whereas
3., but
4.. In contrast,
5.Unlike,.
6., and so is/ does
7., and is/ does too.
8., and is/ does as well.
9.A/ One difference/ similarity (which
stands out) is
10.
One thing that and have in
common is
11.
One of the (few) similarities/
differences between and is
12.
Another/ An additional difference/
similarity (which is instantly apparent)
is
13.
The most obvious/ important/
apparent similarity/ difference (for me)
between and is
14.
A striking similarity/ difference is
15.
and are (quite/ very/ really/ really
quite) similar/ different, for example
16.
and. are (quite/ very/ really/
really quite) similar/ different in terms
of
17.
is different/ similar, in that
18.
, as is/ does.
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19.
and have a lot in common, for
example
20.
and dont have much in common,
but
21.
There are more similarities than
differences between and For
instance,
22.
The main similarity/ difference
between and is
23.
The only difference/ similarity
between that I can see is
24.
In comparison to,
25.
Compared to,
26.
A/ One contrast between and is
that
27.
is (slightly/ a bit/ somewhat/ quite
a lot/ a great deal/ substantially/ a lot/
much/ far/ much much/ far far) er/
more than
28.
is not (nearly/ quite) as as
29.
. In a similar way,
30.
Contrasting and,
31.
The most apparent difference/
similarity between and is
32.
and that is (more or less) the same
for
33.
and share
34.
A more subtle difference is
35.
differs from in that
36.
. Likewise,
37.
Neither nor
38.
One resemblance between and is
that

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Note that actual comparatives as taught in almost every EFL textbook like
The guy in the top photo looks much more relaxed than the girl in the
bottom one are quite difficult to use in FCE Speaking Part Two, and
students are unlikely to be able to come up with more than one or two such
statements. They would therefore be better off concentrating on the
language for talking about similarities and differences from higher up in the
list above. Note also that superlatives are wrong with just two things to talk
about.
!!! Students are unlikely to be able to use on the other hand (because
they are not comparing in order to choose one) and on the contrary is
completely wrong in this task. However, Despite, In spite of, Even
though, Though and Although are likely to be useless for similar
reasons. Nevertheless and Nonetheless can only be used when
summarising how similar or different they are in sentences like
Nonetheless, they arent really that similar something that isnt really
necessary unless they run out of things to say.
Students will need to make sure they use a range of language, preferably
not repeating any comparing and contrasting phrases at all. For that
reason, I generally suggest that they leave simple phrases like but until
later in the minute of speaking, at which point they will probably be running
out of ideas. Although and is used by native speakers to contrast things
in normal speech, I recommend students avoid it because of how low level
and sometimes confusing its use can be.
As seen in one of the example phrases above, another kind of language
that candidates are likely to need is the language of speculation. For
example, This man is happier than this woman is simply wrong, because
it is impossible to know just from photos. Instead, they will need to use
language like this (in approximate order of how useful it is likely to be in
this part of the test):

1.seems
2.looks
3.is obviously
4.probably
5.I guess/ I imagine
6.might/ may/ maybe/ perhaps
7.clearly
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8.Im not sure exactly (what this is) but

9.appears
10.
looks like
11.
I reckon
12.
I suppose
13.
Im fairly sure
14.
I get the impression that
15.
is almost certainly
16.
My initial impression is
17.
must
18.
could (possibly)
19.
Im pretty confident that
20.
I expect
21.
I think Im justified in saying that
The related phrases some kind of/ some sort of are also very
useful.
Again, you might notice how the related grammar point that comes up in
every textbook is far less useful than simpler phrases. In this case, this
means modals of possibility/ probability like must be being much less
useful than adverbs like probably. Students are also very unlikely to need
negative expressions, as it isnt really natural to say things like He cant be
a serial killer in this task!
The third major language point that comes up in this part of the exam is
structuring their speaking with phrases like The first thing that jumps out at
you, One more similarity, Turning to the differences and As for the
second question, This can be emphasised too much, as the Cambridge
description of Discourse management in FCE focuses much more on not
pausing too much and putting ideas together logically. It can also seem a
bit forced when students make too much of an effort to use such phrases. I
therefore probably wouldnt teach it or do practice activities specifically for
this point, but its something well worth giving feedback on after students
practice this task. As Ive done above, you can also include this kind of
language in the speculating and comparing/ contrasting phrases that you
present.

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Other discourse management phrases that could be useful include, in

approximate order of how much so:

1.Right/ Well/ So
2.The most obvious similarity/ difference
is
3.Thats all I can think of to say.
4.I guess I should talk about the second
question now.
If they finish too quickly, they might also want to say Going back to
comparing,
Another kind of functional language they might need is confirming/ check
phrases when they dont understand the second question written on the
card or the question after their partner speaks (the other Id like you to
compare question always being the same). This is far more important in
other parts of the test, especially Speaking Part Four, but if you havent
presented it before it is worth getting in early.
They might also be able to comment on what their partner said with
phrases like Like Maria Jesus, I think this guy seems a bit bored, and Id
feel the same way so This again is more likely to come up in other parts
of the exam but might be worth a mention here.
If students run out of ideas, one possible tip is for them to contrast things
that they can say with a fair amount of certainty about one picture with
things they cant be sure about the other with sentences like Im pretty
sure the man in the top picture is satisfied with his meal, but I have no idea
the couple in other photo feel.
Although students only really need one tense and should in fact be
consistent once they have chosen one, there is a choice of talking about
things happening in the photo with Present Continuous (It looks like he is
enjoying his drink) or with past tenses because of course the photo was
taken in the past. Especially with extended speaking, the former seems
more natural to me and also brings in a tense that students are unlikely
to need much in the rest of the exam. The examiner also uses the Present
Continuous to ask the shorter question.

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Students who arent speaking should look at the person who is and listen
to what is being said just in case they can mention something from it when
they answer the short question for the person speaking (although this
actually being possible is quite rare in Speaking Part Two).
I probably wouldnt present the foreground etc for the compare, dont
describe reason given above and anyway it is okay to point at This
picture etc, but it probably is worth teaching The top photo, The one
underneath, This part of the picture, etc. Unfortunately, once theyve said
photo, photograph and picture they will have to repeat or use simpler
referencing expressions like this one here as other expressions like pic,
picky, snap and the former/ latter dont sound very natural here.
Because of the compare, dont describe advice, students also dont really
need subject-specific vocabulary.

Classroom practice of FCE Speaking Part Two

As with all kinds of exam practice in class, the most important thing is to
make it as realistic as possible. The most important thing is to get students
used to answering both questions in one minute (or at least starting on the
second question in that time), and I never do this task without timing and
interrupting them at just over a minute. I also insist on comparing and
contrasting (rather than describing) from day one, and it is well worth the
extra expense to always use colour photos to get them used to this aspect
of the exam. You can easily find photos to match almost any topic in your
class or textbook (e.g. the reading text which you cover before or after
Speaking Part Two practice), but dont emphasise the topic specific
language that could come up too much.
When it comes to presenting and practising the language above, one thing
students could do is rank one or more of the lists of useful language above
(comparing and contrasting, speculating, etc) by how likely they are to be
able to use it while doing this task, then compare with your suggested
order. With a different selection, students can also rank them by how sure
the person speaking is or how similar or different the two things being
compared are.

15

These ranking tasks are easier to do and more fun if the phrases are given
on pieces of paper to put into columns on the table. Students can then deal
out those pieces of paper and try to use them during a speaking task,
feeding back on which ones actually turned out to be easiest to use.
With classes who would benefit most from being pushed to use more and
higher level language, you could give them points for using phrases that no
one had used so far, including even more points for more obscure
speculating and comparing phrases.
The game above works best if students take turns making statements
about the same pair of photos, something that is also worthwhile practice
more generally despite it not being extended speaking, as it really helps
students stick to comparing and contrasting. Students can take turns trying
to find more and more comparisons between the two photos, or they can
set challenges for each other by making a statement about one photo
including an aspect that their partner must mention when then talking
about the other one.
It is also possible and useful to sometimes set it up as a pairwork
communication task, with each person having one of the two photos and
getting them to find similarities and differences without showing them to
each other. This makes it easier for students to combine both speculating
and comparing, with the initial statements that they make needing the
former and then working together to achieve the latter. You can also let
them speculate about their one photo in pairs before changing groups to
do the blind comparisons thing with someone else.
The extended nature of speaking in this part of the test makes it the most
suitable for classroom analysis of recordings or transcripts of candidates
answers. They can judge:
-

Staying on topic

Range of language (especially not repeating)

Spending the right amount of time on the two parts of the task

Structuring the answer

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Especially if you edit it to make it worse, they can also try to improve on
the performance shown in a (real or imaginary) transcript. For example,
you could take out all comparison, speculating and/ or discourse
management language and get them to put it back in. You could also have
them correcting actual grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation mistakes
such as minimal pairs and false friends. However, students often have too
much of an emphasis on avoiding mistakes already, and those who lack
fluency and/ or confidence wouldnt benefit from this at all.
An alternative is to get students to replace expressions in the text with
something at least as good, maybe underlining the ones that you want
them to look at.
You can link from transcripts to other parts of the exam by designing a Use
of English task around one, with Part One (multiple choice open cloze) and
Part Two (open cloze) being the easiest. Something similar can also be
done with individual useful phrases, e.g. sentence transformations with
speculating language, but youll need to make sure you dont go too far
away from phrases that are actually useful in this part of the exam in order
to ensure that students dont try to say It must have been in the
speaking.
You can also link to other tasks through choice of the topic of the photos.
This is possible for almost any part of the exam, e.g. a Use of English text
on the same topic, but is probably best with Speaking Part Three as they
can use almost exactly the same comparing and speculating language in
that task too. However, you might want to point out that Speaking Part Two
and Speaking Part Three never have the same topic in a real exam, with
Part Three being rather linked to Part Four.

FCE SPEAKING PART 3 : TWO-WAY COLLABORATIVE

TASK
Format of FCE Speaking Part Three/ What students need
to do in FCE Speaking Three
Students are given a group of (usually between five and eight) colour
pictures and are asked to First talk to each other about something for
each of them and Then decide which one or two they would choose for
some particular purpose. For example, they could be given six pictures of
adventure sports and be asked to First talk to each other about what kinds
17

of people the activities might be most suitable for and Then decide which
one you would choose for a company team building activity for a group of
middle-aged office workers.
Since the 2008 update of FCE, the instructions are also written at the top
of the page of pictures, although students should still listen carefully,
especially to extra the background information. After being given the
instructions and picture, students are given three minutes to work on both
tasks, or slightly longer if there are three candidates. While they are
speaking, the examiner will take no part and will usually even look away
from them to let them get on with it together.
The students will be interrupted at exactly the time limit and are usually
asked to briefly report back to the examiner on what they decided in the
second part of their discussion.
The whole examiner script will be something like:
Now, Id like you to talk about something together for about three minutes.
(four minutes for groups of three)

Id like you to imagine that Here are some which

First, Id like you to talk to each other about these Then decide which
(two) All right?
If the examiner doesnt give a number, it means the students only need to
choose one.
Although the two parts of the task are related, the thing they have to
decide and the thing they have to discuss about each item isnt exactly the
same so it isnt really possible to do both parts of the task concurrently.
What students need to do to do well in FCE Speaking Part Three
Students will need to:
- Get started on the first part of the discussion task quickly

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- Discuss as many of the pictures as they can before moving onto the
second part of the task, meaning they have to discuss each picture but
only briefly before they move onto the next one
- Leave at least one minute for the second part of the task, even if that
means abandoning the first part unfinished
- Work their way towards agreement in the second part of the task
- Briefly report back on what they decided, or the point their discussion was
at when they were interrupted
It would also help get a good mark for them to:
- Show a range of strong and weak opinions, including agreement and
disagreement
- Show good turn taking skills, e.g. speaking approximately 50% each,
interrupting politely and persuading reluctant partners to speak
Note that they dont have to reach agreement, but they do have to show
their ability to negotiate and compromise in an attempt to find something
that they can both agree on.
Other functional language students will need includes:
- Controlling the conversation, e.g. suggesting things to talk about and
moving the conversation on, for example when agreement is quickly
reached or if its obvious no agreement is possible on something
- Speculating, e.g. on what a picture might represent or what something
might be suitable for
- Talking around vocabulary they dont know, with expressions like This
picture looks like some kind of picnic
Comparing and contrasting language might also be useful for moving
between items in the first part of the task (This one, however,, In the
same way, this one, etc) and trying to reach agreement in the second
part of the task (But dont you think this one is more suitable? etc), and

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as this is really important for the rest of the exam it is well worth at least
some specific practice of this point here.
The examiner might also be impressed by students being able to describe
pictures, as The top left picture and The one under that, but its perfectly
okay for students to just point at pictures and say This picture/ activity/
sport/ one/ idea.
There is little point trying to practise suitable vocabulary for this part of the
exam, as there is no way of guessing what topics could come up and it is
easy for students to work around any unknown words a skill that is worth
some practice.
Classroom practice of FCE Speaking Part Three
The first thing to make sure is that all classroom practice of this part is like
the exam, meaning with:
- Written and spoken instructions similar to that of the exam
- Two parts to the task (discussing something about each picture, then
deciding something), with the two parts being quite distinct from each other
- The right number of items to discuss
- Usually pairs but sometimes groups of three
- Pictures rather than written lists of things to talk about
- A strict time limit, and always being asked to report back to class on what
they have decided (or where their discussion got up to)
Other tasks like balloon debates and pyramid ranking tasks can bring up
similar negotiating and giving opinions language to the exam tasks, but the
timing and responding to pictures parts of the exam are at least as
challenging as the actual negotiating and should be practised as much as
possible. If you do decide to do other speaking activities to provide more
intensive practice of one aspect of the functional language they need, it is
always worth doing a timed version of the same task or an exam task
straight before or after in order to practise using that language under more
realistic conditions.
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Although its difficult to find suitable pictures, there are also things which
youd want to discuss in class anyway which can be done in an exam
format, including what their priorities are (needs analysis), which self-study
activities are most suitable for them outside class, and things they should
do on the morning of the exam. Students can also discuss the difficulties of
a set of FCE Writing Part Two tasks and choose the easiest in the same
way. Again, these tasks should be done also under real exam conditions,
perhaps before or after more leisurely discussion of the points.
With students who tend to talk too much or too little in this task, more
intensive practice includes:
- Students trying to speak more than their partner
- Students trying to make their partner speak more than them
- Getting one student to monitor each group for polite turn taking language
and equal speaking time
Other more intensive practice of the language and skills mentioned above
includes:
- Somebody monitoring for things other than turn taking such as if they
used a range of different kinds of giving opinions and how much silence
there was
- The teacher providing prompts for when they should move onto the
second part of the task, or even when they should move onto different
pictures in the first part of the task, e.g. shouting out or flashing up Picture
2! or Starting deciding!
- A third student controlling the conversation with useful phrases for the
exam like And how about the second best?
- Students being asked to start with totally opposite opinions and work their
way towards agreement, e.g. Students A and B being told Choose the two
items at the far left/ Choose the items on the far right or Choose meats/
Choose vegetables.
- Students racing through the first part of the exam as quickly as possible
while still briefly discussing each picture
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- Giving students phrases, key words or just names of functions

(interrupting politely etc) that they should use during a Speaking Part
Three task discussion, perhaps for points
You could also ask quite strong groups to try the task without pointing to
bring in more complex language, but for most students this isnt really a
priority.
To also give more realistic exam practice, I would do each of those kinds of
intensive practice with real exam tasks but without realistic timing, then
change groups and get them to do the same task under real exam
conditions.

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