Speaking: Read-Aloud, Passage Questions, Illustration Description, and Opinion Question
The Pre-2 interview has four parts: read a short passage aloud, answer questions about that passage, describe an illustration, and answer an opinion question with a reason. The examiner is checking pronunciation and fluency, comprehension, your ability to describe a scene accurately, and your ability to give and support a view in English without long silences.
Read-aloud: steady, not fast
Pause at commas and full stops, stress content words, and pronounce final -s and -ed clearly. Look one phrase ahead so you do not stop mid-sentence. A calm, accurate reading scores better than a rushed one with mistakes.
Passage questions: full sentences, mirror the question
Reuse the grammar of the question. "Where does Kenji practice?" → "He practices at the city pool." Subject + verb + detail. Never answer with a single word or a fragment.
Illustration: present continuous, one person per sentence
Name the person, say what they are doing, and add the place or object: "A woman is putting a box on the shelf." "In the park, two boys are playing catch." Cover several people, not just one, and ignore anything not shown.
Opinion question: opinion plus reason
Answer with "I think ... because ..." and add one more sentence of detail. A one-word answer ends the exchange and loses points; two connected sentences earn them.
Worked example
Illustration: a station platform - a man reading a newspaper on a bench, a woman buying a ticket at a machine, two children standing with bags. Answer: "A man is reading a newspaper on the bench. A woman is buying a ticket at the machine. Two children are standing with their bags." Reasoning: three visible people produce three sentences, each built as subject + is/are + verb-ing + place. Describing only "There is a man" states existence but not action, so it earns less. Past tense (was reading) is wrong because the picture is happening now.
Traps that cost marks
- One-word or two-word answers to the passage and opinion questions.
- Describing an illustration in the past tense, or adding opinions into the description.
- Reading the passage too fast, then stumbling on the final consonants.
- Answering a question the examiner did not ask because you only caught one keyword.
- Long silence - say something simple and finish the sentence rather than stopping.