SPEAKING PAPER- PART 3

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

- 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 don’t 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 it’s 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 don’t 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 don’t you think this one is more suitable?” etc), and 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 it’s 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.