Spoken: Interaction, Description and Role Play
What the Spoken exam tests
The LanguageCert A2 Access Spoken exam is a short face-to-face interview with an examiner/interlocutor. It tests your ability to give personal information, describe a picture, take part in a simple role play and answer follow-up questions. At A2 you need to communicate in routine situations, not give long speeches.
Core rules and task types
- Personal information: answer questions about name, spelling, country, home, work or studies, free time. Give a full sentence, then one extra detail.
- Picture description: say what you see, where things are and what people are doing. Use there is/are, present continuous and prepositions (next to, behind, on the left).
- Role play: use functional language: Can I have...? How much is...? Would you like...? Always ask the question on the card if there is one.
- Follow-up: listen to the examiner and respond; use because, but, and to link ideas.
Worked example
Role-play card: You are in a café. Order a coffee and a sandwich. Ask the price. Model: Can I have a coffee and a cheese sandwich, please? How much is that? Reasoning: the model uses a polite request (Can I have...?), names both items, and asks the required question. It is short but complete - exactly what A2 requires.
Traps that cost marks
- One-word answers (Yes. No. Blue.) - they give the examiner little to assess.
- Forgetting to ask the question in the role play.
- Reciting a memorised speech instead of answering the question.
- Long silences; use Well, ... or Let me think to keep going.
- Unclear pronunciation of letters, numbers and prices - practise spelling your name and saying thirteen/thirty.