Tag: worksheet

I have already published several speaking activities. There is Summer Holiday Speaking activity or School Subjects Speaking Activity. However, this post is different as the speaking activity here is a sample FCE exam speaking test.

The FCE speaking exam consists of four parts. In this post you can find an example of each part and there are instructions how to use them in a class.

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FCE Speaking Exam – part one

[/su_heading][su_spacer] There are always two students examined at the same time (if there is an odd number of students there are three students.) There are two examiners. One of them speaks and the other does not. She only takes notes of what is said. The examiners are always very friendly.

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In the first part the interlocutor (the examiner who asks the questions) asks some general questions to get to know the students. Here are some examples of the questions:

Hello, what is your name?
Where do you live?
What do you think of the area where you live?
What kind of music do you listen to?
Has your taste in music changed in the past?
Where do you like listening to music?

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FCE Speaking Exam – part two

[/su_heading][su_spacer] In this part each student gets two pictures and they have to compare them for one minute. Then they have to listen to their partner and react to what they say. They have about 20 seconds for their reaction.

Examiner: In this part of the test, I´m going to give each of you two photographs. I´d like you to talk about your photograpraphs on your own for about a minute, and also to answer a short question about your partner´s photographs. Candidate A, it´s your turn first. Here are your photographs. They show different activities people do alone. I´d like you to compare the photographs, and say why the people want to be alone. All right?

Then the examiner says: Thank you. Candidate B, what do you like doing alone?
Thank you.
Now, Candidate B, here are your two photographs. They show people being together in groups. I´d like you to compare the photographs, and say why you think people are together in these situations. All right?

Thank you.
Candidate A, what do you think of formal meetings?
Thank you.

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FCE Speaking Exam – part three

[/su_heading][su_spacer] The third part is a cooperative task. In this task the students have to take turns and agree on the answer together. This part lasts about 4 minutes.

The examiner says: Now, I´d like you to talk about something together for about three minutes. There is a youth club in your town and you would like to offer to teenagers some activities they would like. You have to choose form the activities in the pictures. First, talk to each other about why you think people would like these activities and then decide which two activities you would offer to people and why. All right?

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FCE Speaking Exam – part four

[/su_heading][su_spacer] In this part the examiner asks the students several questions connected with the topic in part three. This part takes between three and four minutes.

Examiner:Which of these activities do you enjoy doing?
Which activities do you hate doing?
Are there enough activities for teenagers in the area where you live?
What are the problems teenagers in your area have?
What should be done, so that teenagers would cause no problems?
Are there any activities which aren´t suitable for teenagers?
(The examiner will add these as he/she thinks appropriate:
What do you think?
Do you agree?
And you?)
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FCE Speaking Exam – Classroom notes

[/su_heading][su_spacer] You can either ask your students to work in pairs or in groups of three. If they work in pairs, one of them asks and the other answers. They swap roles after the given time. If they work in groups of three, one of them is the interlocutor and he/she reads the instructions and times the parts.

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The teacher should monitor and note the mistakes students make to deal with them later in the lesson.

You can download the full worksheet here:

[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/FCE-speaking-exam_full-test.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]FCE Speaking Exam – pdf worksheet[/su_button]

Youtube is one of the most popular websites on the internet. 4 billion videos are watched every day there. Therefore we should not ignore it and try to use it to teach English. In this post I take one of the Youtube videos and I build the whole lesson around it. It is the video of Susan Boyle´s first performance and it not only gives you a chance to improve your students´ knowldedge of English, it also allows you to discuss some serious questions like ageism.

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[showmyads] In this post you can find the Youtube video and a worksheet with a set of questions.
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Susan Boyle – worksheet

[/su_heading][su_spacer] Print the following worksheet (one copy for each student).

[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Susan-Boyle-video-activity1.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Susan Boyle video worksheet [/su_button]

First, ask the students to work in pairs and discuss the questions from activity 1. Give them about three minutes to do this. When they finish ask several students the questions and listen to their answers.

Then play the video and the students have to complete the exercises 2-4.

Here is the key to exercise 2: dream, love, young, song, tigers, hopes, dream, dream, weather, life, different, dream.

Play the video twice to give the students a chance to absorb the video while doing the tasks which are not that easy.

Once they finish, ask the students to choose three questions from exercise 5 and ask you. Answer the questions and well as you can. Thus you will demonstrate the way your students should speak and at the same time you will tell your students something about you. In this way you might get closer to them and they will get some time to think about their own answers. Be honest in your answers, students, especially teenagers, hate insencere teachers.

After the three questions, ask the students to work in pairs and discuss the questions. Then elicit the most interesting answers.

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Susan Boyle – more YOUTUBE lessons

[/su_heading][su_spacer] You can find one more video activity here. There is another video, this time with a short poem. Enjoy
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The school year is starting and the summer holiday is over. Students are returning to their classrooms and we have to teach them. And I think that many of us would like to teach better than last year. So let’s start with a great speaking activity about the summer holiday.
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[showmyads] The original idea comes from Larry Ferlazzo and you can find the original worksheet here. Larry was so kind to allow me to use his idea and worksheet and modify them. In this post you will find a video, a worksheet and instructions how to use them.

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My Summer Holiday – video

[/su_heading][su_spacer] Start with the following video. Ask the students to read, listen and repeat the sentences as instructed in the film. Play the video at least twice and do not worry if the students are not able to repeat some of the phrases in full. It is enough if they try.

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My Summer Holiday – worksheet

[/su_heading][su_spacer] You can find the original worksheet by Larry Ferlazzo here. Larry was so kind to allow me to change the worksheet and use it here.
[su_spacer] My summer holiday worksheet
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Print the worksheet so that the text is on one side and the colourful mind map is on the other.

Ask the students to complete the worksheet with their own ideas and experience. In some cases they can find several suitable expressions in the brackets but they can use their own words if they want to. There are several gaps with no help and students have to use their own words there.
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[showmyadsa] Once students complete the worksheet, they work in pairs and read their version to their partner. When they finish, ask them to have a look at the mind map on the other side of the paper. Explain that the mind map sums up the whole text. Demonstrate that you can easily retell the text using the mind map.

Ask the students to work in pairs again and retell their Summer Holiday story. Change pairs and students retell their story again. Do not prevent students from looking at the original worksheet if they feel they need to. They will copy the phrases and thus learn them.

Now it is time to play the video again and the students should be able to remember much more than the previous time. Play the video at least twice in the following lessons.