What is this part of the exam?

Speaking Part 2 of the B2 first, formally known as the FCE, is called the long turn. This is the candidates opportunity to give a monologue and show how they can organize their speech. This is evaluated in the Discourse Management part of the evaluation scale

For discourse management “Produces extended stretches of language with very little hesitation. Contributions are relevant and there is a clear organization of ideas. Uses a range of cohesive devices and discourse markers”. This part of the evaluation states that you need to organize your speech, use various connectors (5-8), what you say is focussed on answering the questions and you do not doubt much when you are speaking.

What does the candidate need to do?

Long turn (part 2) 3 minutes: In this part of the exam, each student speaks individually for 1 minute (do not stop until the examiner says “thank you”) about 2 photos. The candidate needs to compare the images using a variety of connectors and complex grammar (passive, relative clauses, conditionals, wish, modal verbs) to show that they can organize and extend their speech. Do not just describe, you need to go from one image to the next (see diagram). Complex grammar is easy to use; you should use fixed phrases, like:

10 Activities Using Images and Photos

(passive) This photo was taken/These photos were taken…

It is said that…

(relative clauses) There is a person who is…/There are some people who are…
(modals) This is a beautiful image, it may/might/could be…..
(conditionals) If I were the person in the picture, I would/could…

(wish/if only) The activity in the picture looks fun, If only/I wish I could

How can I practice?

To find out how to do this part of the exam, follow this link

The best way to get some practice for this part of the exam is to do it with a partner and use real exam examples. Here is an example and a PDF with b2-first-part-2-exam-examples

Example exams:

Interlocutor

In this part of the test, I’m going to give each of you two photographs. I’d like you to talk about the photographs on your own for about one minute, and also to answer a question about your partner’s photographs.

(Candidate A) It’s your turn first. Here are your photographs. They show people who are eating.

I’d like you to compare the photographs, and say how what you eat influences your health.

All right?

……………………………………………………………………………………….

Thank you

(Candidate B) What would you rather eat as a snack?

Why might these people have chosen to eat these different snacks?