The first TOEIC Speaking task gives you a short workplace text — a store announcement, a traffic report, a voicemail greeting — a few seconds to prepare, and then records you reading it aloud. It is scored on pronunciation, stress and intonation, not on ideas, which makes it the most improvable task on the test. This page shows you where to break, what to stress, and how to read a list.
In the preparation time, find the two or three words you are unsure of — a place name, a long noun, a number — and decide how to say them. Everything else you can read on sight.
Commas, full stops and the boundary before *and* or *but* are your pause points. Breaking anywhere else, especially between an adjective and its noun, sounds wrong to a rater.
Nouns, main verbs, adjectives and adverbs carry the beat. Articles, prepositions and auxiliaries do not. Reading every word with equal weight is the commonest reason a read sounds flat.
*Our branches in Dayton, Elmwood and Riverton* rises on the first two and falls on the last. This single habit signals control to a listener immediately.
Nerves speed everyone up. Beginning slightly slow leaves room to accelerate into a comfortable pace instead of running out of breath.
*Pick up an order* runs together as *pi-cka-pa-norder*. Linking is what separates fluent reading from a list of individual words.
If you mispronounce a word, say it once more correctly and continue. Stopping, apologising or restarting damages fluency far more than the original error.
Finishing is part of the task. If time is tight, hold your pace steady rather than sprinting, because an unclear ending costs more than an unfinished clause.
Rate your own reading for pauses in odd places, flat stress and dropped word endings. Those three account for most of the difference between a middling and a strong score.
Not thisPausing between an adjective and its noun: *our new … product line*.
ThisPausing at the comma: *Our new product line, available Monday, …*
Breaks belong at grammatical boundaries. A pause inside a noun phrase makes the sentence harder to follow, however clear each word is.
Not thisStressing *the*, *of* and *to* equally with nouns and verbs.
ThisStressing the content words only.
English rhythm is built on stressed beats at roughly even intervals. Equal stress removes the rhythm a listener uses to parse the sentence.
Not thisReading *available* as AVA-lable.
ThisSaying a-VAIL-a-ble.
Long workplace words are the ones raters notice. Learn the stressed syllable of the two dozen that keep appearing: available, appointment, department, information, experience.
Not thisSlowing almost to a stop to read a phone number.
ThisGrouping the digits: five-five-five, two-one-double-four.
Numbers read in groups keep the pace; read one at a time, they break the rhythm of the whole text.
Not thisRestarting the sentence after a mispronunciation.
ThisCorrecting the word once and reading on.
Fluency is part of the score. A restart costs several seconds and signals a loss of control over the text.
Not thisFalling in pitch on every item of a list.
ThisRising on all but the last.
Falling intonation tells the listener the list has ended. Using it early makes each remaining item sound like an afterthought.
40 original questions. The first 10 are open to everyone. Answers are checked in your browser and never sent to us, so you can share this page with a class as it is.
2Write the stressed syllable in capital letters.
4Complete with one word.
7Complete with one word.
9Complete with one word.
10You mispronounce a word halfway through the text. Describe what you should do, and why.
One good answer
Say the word once more correctly and carry on reading. Restarting the sentence costs seconds and makes the delivery sound uncontrolled, which affects the fluency part of the score more than the original slip.
12Complete with an ordinal word.
14Write the linked syllable that joins *up* and *an*.
17Write the stressed syllable in capital letters.
19Complete with one noun meaning *an alternative route*.
21Complete with the -ing form of *chunk*.
23Complete with one word.
24Write the sentence "Our Riverton branch will reopen on Monday, October 6, at nine o'clock." and mark where you would pause and which words you would stress.
One good answer
Pause at each comma: Our Riverton BRANCH will reOPEN on MONday, / OCtober SIX, / at NINE o'clock. Stress the branch, the verb, the day, the date and the time; leave the articles and prepositions light.
26Complete with an ordinal word.
28Complete with one noun.
31Complete with one noun.
33Write the stressed syllable in capital letters.
35Explain in one or two sentences why linking matters more than perfect individual sounds in this task.
One good answer
Raters judge whether a listener can follow the text easily, and connected speech is much easier to follow than a string of separate words. A slightly imperfect vowel inside a linked phrase is far less noticeable than a correct word standing alone.
36Complete with one noun.
39Complete with one noun.
Note
Pick Two Activity is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Cambridge University Press & Assessment, the British Council, IDP, ETS, Duolingo or any other exam board. Exam names are trademarks of their owners and are used here only to describe the exam you are preparing for. Every question on this page is original practice written by us: we do not provide, copy or reproduce official exam papers.
No. The question is whether a listener can understand you without effort. Accent is expected; unclear stress and dropped endings are what cause difficulty.
Short — a paragraph of a few sentences that fits comfortably into the recording time. The challenge is delivery, not length.
Scan for difficult words and mark the punctuation breaks. Silent reading of the whole text is useful; whispering it is better if the test conditions allow.
Evenly. A steady, slightly deliberate pace with clear breaks scores better than fast reading, and much better than a delivery that starts fast and slows down.
Record yourself reading announcements and voicemail greetings, then listen for three things only: pauses in odd places, flat stress and word endings you dropped.