Forty Seconds of Silence at the Station
Speaking test, Grade 2. The candidate has one minute to prepare a 40-second description of a picture, then an opinion question. The picture shows a family of four on a station platform at 8:55. The father is holding a large suitcase; the mother is looking at her watch; a boy of about ten is running after a ticket that is blowing away; a station worker is raising a whistle. The candidate says "There is a family. There is a station." and stops with 25 seconds left. Later, asked "Do you think people depend too much on smartphones?", she says "Yes. ... I don't know how to say more," after eight seconds. She knows the grammar (relative clauses, present continuous) but freezes when she cannot find the word for 切符 (ticket).
1. Give her a description frame that works even when her mind goes blank, and apply it to this picture.
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Use a four-step frame with a fixed question at each step:
- Place and time - "This is a station platform at about nine in the morning."
- People - "There is a family of four, and a station worker."
- Actions, present continuous - "The father is holding a big suitcase. The mother is looking at her watch. A boy is running after a ticket."
- One detail that suggests what happens next - "The worker is raising his whistle, so the train is probably coming soon."
That is roughly 40 seconds at a calm pace and needs no special vocabulary.
Why it survives a freeze: every step has a prepared question - Where? Who? Doing what? What next? - so she never has to invent the next sentence. If step 3 stalls, jump to step 4: the examiner is scoring fluency and grammatical range, not completeness.
Avoid listing objects ("a bag, a clock, a ticket") or describing the picture's edges. The marks are in "is holding," "is looking," "are waiting."
2. She cannot remember the English word for 切符. What should she do in the moment, and what should she practise afterwards?
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Describe it instead of stopping. The examiner cannot see the word in her head; they can only hear what she says.
For 切符 / ticket:
- "the small piece of paper you need to get on the train"
- "the thing you show at the gate before you get on"
- "his train ticket - sorry, I mean the paper for the train"
Any of these keeps the sentence moving and demonstrates exactly the skill the test rewards: paraphrasing.
Three-second rule: if the word does not come within three seconds, switch to a description. Do not fall silent.
Useful frames to memorise: "It is a kind of ..." / "It is used for ..." / "It is the thing that you ..."
What to avoid: apologising at length ("Sorry, my English is bad"). One quick "sorry" is fine; a whole sentence of apology is scored as silence.
3. For the opinion question, show how to produce a clear answer in about 20 seconds, including how to buy time.
Read the worked answer
Three short parts: answer, reason, example - two to three sentences.
Model: "Yes, I think so. Many people check their phones every few minutes, even when they are with friends. For example, at dinner, family members sometimes look at their screens instead of talking. So I believe we depend on them too much."
Buying time without sounding lost: use a short opener that still carries meaning - "That is a difficult question, but I think ..." or "I have never thought about it, but ..." Two to four words, then commit to an answer.
If the reason stalls, give a personal example instead. Grade 2 examiners reward a clear position with support, not a complicated argument.
Rehearse four or five topics - phones, studying abroad, club activities, online classes, city life - so one prepared example can be bent to fit a new question. Never memorise a full answer; it will not match what is asked, and the mismatch is obvious.