C2 Proficiency Listening & Speaking practice
C2 Proficiency Listening and Speaking test the same thing from two directions: how much of a fluent speaker’s meaning you can follow, and how much of your own you can convey. The Listening paper is short and unforgiving, and the Speaking test rewards candidates who can develop an idea, disagree gracefully and keep talking under mild pressure.
What this paper asks of you
- Following gist, attitude and implication rather than only stated fact.
- Recognising paraphrase, since the option almost never repeats the recording’s words.
- Handling natural speech: connected speech, false starts, self-correction, hesitation.
- Writing exactly what is heard where a task requires the speaker’s own words.
- Interacting: inviting, responding, disagreeing and building on a partner’s idea.
- Sustaining an extended turn with structure rather than a list.
- Speculating and hedging aloud, which is where C2 speakers show range.
- Discourse management: signposting your own speech so a listener can follow it.
- Pronunciation features that carry meaning: stress, intonation for contrast, chunking.
- Negotiating a decision without either dominating or disappearing.
Task types, one page each
- Listening multiple choiceC2 Proficiency listening multiple choice practice: forty original items on attitude, implication, distractor types and the paraphrase the options always use.40 questions
- Sentence completionC2 Proficiency sentence completion practice: forty original items on predicting word class, hearing the exact words and avoiding paraphrase traps.40 questions
- Listening multiple matchingC2 Proficiency listening multiple matching practice: forty original items on matching speakers to opinions, reasons and attitudes across short monologues.40 questions
- Collaborative taskC2 Proficiency collaborative task practice: forty original items on interaction, disagreement, negotiation and the language of reaching a decision with a partner.40 questions
- The long turnC2 Proficiency long turn practice: forty original items on structuring a two-minute answer, speculating, comparing and responding to your partner’s turn.40 questions
Note
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