C1 Advanced Listening & Speaking: task-by-task practice
Listening and Speaking are the two papers candidates practise least and lose most on. Listening rewards recognising a paraphrase under time pressure; Speaking rewards interacting properly with a partner and keeping going for a full minute without a script. Both are trainable, and both have task-specific habits worth building.
What this paper asks of you
- Recognising the paraphrase: the answer almost never uses the words printed in the question.
- Hearing attitude and opinion, not only information.
- Using the pause before each recording to read and predict.
- Writing what you actually hear in the completion task, not a tidied version of it.
- Recovering from a missed answer without losing the next two.
- Interacting in Speaking: inviting, responding, building on and disagreeing politely.
- Speculating fluently about what you cannot be sure of.
- Answering the two questions on the long-turn task, not just describing.
- Keeping a natural pace, with hesitation devices rather than silence.
Task types, one page each
- Listening multiple choiceC1 Advanced listening multiple-choice practice: paraphrase, attitude and distractor language, with forty original items and clear explanations.40 questions
- Sentence completionC1 Advanced listening sentence-completion practice: predicting word class, writing the words you hear and avoiding paraphrase, in forty original items.40 questions
- Multiple matchingC1 Advanced listening multiple-matching practice: two tasks, five speakers and eight options, with forty original items on paraphrase and distractors.40 questions
- The collaborative taskC1 Advanced collaborative task practice: how to discuss prompts with a partner, disagree politely and reach a decision, with forty original items.40 questions
- The long turnC1 Advanced long turn practice: comparing pictures, speculating fluently and answering both printed questions, with forty original items and models.40 questions
Note
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