Paper 4

C1 Advanced Speaking Examiners use a more detailed version of the following assessment scales, extracted from the overall Speaking
scales on page 86:

Grammatical Lexical Interactive

C1 Discourse Management Pronunciation
Resource Resource Communication
Produces extended stretches Interacts with ease,
Uses a wide range linking contributions
of language with ease and with Is intelligible.
of appropriate to those of other
very little hesitation.
Maintains control vocabulary to give Phonological features speakers.
5 of a wide range of and exchange Contributions are relevant, are used effectively
grammatical forms. views on familiar coherent and varied. Widens the scope of
to convey and
and unfamiliar the interaction and
Uses a wide range of cohesive enhance meaning.
topics. negotiates towards
devices and discourse markers. an outcome.
4 Performance shares features of Bands 3 and 5.

Produces extended stretches Is intelligible. Initiates and responds

Uses a range of language with very little appropriately, linking
Intonation is
Shows a good of appropriate hesitation. contributions to those
appropriate.
degree of control vocabulary to give of other speakers.
Contributions are relevant Sentence and word
3 of a range of simple and exchange Maintains and
and there is a clear organisation stress is accurately
and some complex views on familiar develops the
of ideas. placed.
grammatical forms. and unfamiliar interaction and
topics. Uses a range of cohesive Individual sounds are negotiates towards an
devices and discourse markers. articulated clearly. outcome.
2 Performance shares features of Bands 1 and 3.
Is intelligible.
Produces extended stretches Initiates and responds
Shows a good Uses appropriate Intonation is
of language despite some appropriately.
degree of vocabulary to give generally appropriate.
hesitation. Maintains and
control of simple and exchange Sentence and word
1 grammatical forms, views, but only Contributions are relevant and develops the
stress is generally
and attempts when talking there is very little repetition. interaction and
accurately placed.
some complex about familiar negotiates towards
Uses a range of cohesive Individual sounds an outcome with very
grammatical forms. topics.
devices. are generally little support.
articulated clearly.
0 Performance below Band 1.

C1 Global achievement

Handles communication on a wide range of topics, including unfamiliar and abstract ones,
with very little hesitation.
5
Uses accurate and appropriate linguistic resources to express complex ideas and concepts
and produce extended discourse that is coherent and easy to follow.
4 Performance shares features of Bands 3 and 5.
Handles communication on a range of familiar and unfamiliar topics, with very little
hesitation.
3
Uses accurate and appropriate linguistic resources to express ideas and produce extended
discourse that is generally coherent.
2 Performance shares features of Bands 1 and 3.
Handles communication on familiar topics, despite some hesitation.
1 Organises extended discourse but occasionally produces utterances that lack coherence,
and some inaccuracies and inappropriate usage occur.
0 Performance below Band 1.

Speaking Assessment 85
86
Grammatical Resource Lexical Resource Discourse Management Pronunciation Interactive Communication

• Produces extended stretches of language

• Uses a wide range of with flexibility and ease and very little • Interacts with ease by skilfully
• Maintains control appropriate vocabulary hesitation. • Is intelligible. interweaving his/her contributions into the
of a wide range of with flexibility to give • Contributions are relevant, coherent, • Phonological features are used conversation.
grammatical forms and and exchange views on varied and detailed. effectively to convey and enhance • Widens the scope of the interaction and
uses them with flexibility. unfamiliar and abstract • Makes full and effective use of a wide meaning. develops it fully and effectively towards a
topics. range of cohesive devices and discourse negotiated outcome.
Overall Speaking scales

markers.

• Produces extended stretches of language • Is intelligible.

• Uses a wide range of
with ease and with very little hesitation. • Intonation is appropriate. • Interacts with ease, linking contributions
• Maintains control appropriate vocabulary
• Contributions are relevant, coherent and • Sentence and word stress is to those of other speakers.
C2 of a wide range of to give and exchange
varied. accurately placed. • Widens the scope of the interaction and
grammatical forms. views on unfamiliar and
• Uses a wide range of cohesive devices and • Individual sounds are articulated negotiates towards an outcome.
abstract topics.
discourse markers. clearly.

• Produces extended stretches of language • Is intelligible.

• Uses a range of • Initiates and responds appropriately,
• Shows a good degree with very little hesitation. • Intonation is appropriate.
appropriate vocabulary linking contributions to those of other
of control of a range of • Contributions are relevant and there is a • Sentence and word stress is
C1 to give and exchange speakers.
simple and some complex clear organisation of ideas. accurately placed.
views on familiar and • Maintains and develops the interaction
grammatical forms. • Uses a range of cohesive devices and • Individual sounds are articulated
unfamiliar topics. and negotiates towards an outcome.
discourse markers. clearly.

Grammar and Vocabulary

• Is intelligible.
• Produces extended stretches of language
• Shows a good degree of control of simple grammatical • Intonation is generally appropriate. • Initiates and responds appropriately.
despite some hesitation.
forms, and attempts some complex grammatical forms. • Sentence and word stress is • Maintains and develops the interaction
B2 • Contributions are relevant and there is
• Uses appropriate vocabulary to give and exchange generally accurately placed. and negotiates towards an outcome with
very little repetition.
views, on a range of familiar topics. • Individual sounds are generally very little support.
• Uses a range of cohesive devices.
articulated clearly.
• Produces responses which are extended
• Shows a good degree of control of simple grammatical
beyond short phrases, despite hesitation. • Is mostly intelligible, and has some • Initiates and responds appropriately.
forms.
B1 • Contributions are mostly relevant, but control of phonological features at • Keeps the interaction going with very little
• Uses a range of appropriate vocabulary when talking
there may be some repetition. both utterance and word levels. prompting and support.
about familiar topics.
• Uses basic cohesive devices.

• Shows sufficient control of simple grammatical forms. • Maintains simple exchanges, despite some
• Is mostly intelligible, despite limited
A2 • Uses appropriate vocabulary to talk about everyday difficulty.
control of phonological features.
situations. • Requires prompting and support.

• Has considerable difficulty maintaining

• Has very limited control of
• Shows only limited control of a few grammatical forms. simple exchanges.
A1 phonological features and is often
• Uses a vocabulary of isolated words and phrases. • Requires additional prompting and
unintelligible.
support.
 Paper 4

Speaking assessment glossary Attempts at control: sporadic and inconsistent use of accurate
of terms and appropriate grammatical forms. For example, the inconsistent
use of one form in terms of structure or meaning; the production
of one part of a complex form incorrectly; or the use of some
1. General complex forms correctly and some incorrectly.
Conveying basic meaning
Spoken language often involves false starts, incomplete
Conveying basic meaning: the ability of candidates to get their utterances, ellipsis and reformulation. Where communication is
message across to their listeners, despite possible inaccuracies in achieved, such features are not penalised.
the structure and/or delivery of the message.
Grammatical forms
Situations and topics
Simple grammatical forms: words, phrases, basic tenses and
Everyday situations: situations that candidates come across in simple clauses.
their everyday lives, e.g. having a meal, asking for information,
shopping, going out with friends or family, travelling to work, Complex grammatical forms: longer and more complex
taking part in leisure activities. An A2 Key task that requires utterances, e.g. noun clauses, relative and adverb clauses,
candidates to exchange details about a store’s opening hours subordination, passive forms, infinitives, verb patterns, modal
exemplifies an everyday situation. forms and tense contrasts.

Familiar topics: topics about which candidates can be expected to Range

have some knowledge or personal experience. B2 First tasks that
Range: the variety of words and grammatical forms a candidate
require candidates to talk about what people like to do on holiday,
uses. At higher levels, candidates will make increasing use
or what it is like to do different jobs, exemplify familiar topics.
of a greater variety of words, fixed phrases, collocations and
grammatical forms.
Unfamiliar topics: topics which candidates would not be
expected to have much personal experience of. C1 Advanced tasks
that require candidates to speculate about whether people in the 3. Discourse Management
world today only care about themselves, or the kinds of problems
that having a lot of money can cause, exemplify unfamiliar topics. Coherence and cohesion
Coherence and cohesion are difficult to separate in discourse.
Abstract topics: topics which include ideas rather than concrete Broadly speaking, coherence refers to a clear and logical stretch of
situations or events. C2 Proficiency tasks that require candidates speech which can be easily followed by a listener. Cohesion refers
to discuss how far the development of our civilisation has been to a stretch of speech which is unified and structurally organised.
affected by chance discoveries or events, or the impact of writing
on society, exemplify abstract topics. Coherence and cohesion can be achieved in a variety of ways,
including with the use of cohesive devices, related vocabulary,
Utterance grammar and discourse markers.
Utterance: people generally write in sentences and they speak in
utterances. An utterance may be as short as a word or phrase, or a Cohesive devices: words or phrases which indicate relationships
longer stretch of language. between utterances, e.g. addition (and, in addition, moreover);
consequence (so, therefore, as a result); order of information (first,
second, next, finally).
2. Grammar and Vocabulary
At higher levels, candidates should be able to provide cohesion
Appropriacy of vocabulary
not just with basic cohesive devices (e.g. and, but, or, then, finally)
Appropriacy of vocabulary: the use of words and phrases that but also with more sophisticated devices (e.g. therefore, moreover,
fit the context of the given task. For example, in the utterance as a result, in addition, however, on the other hand).
I’m very sensible to noise, the word sensible is inappropriate as the
word should be sensitive. Another example would be Today’s big Related vocabulary: the use of several items from the same lexical
snow makes getting around the city difficult. The phrase getting set, e.g. train, station, platform, carriage; or study, learn, revise.
around is well suited to this situation. However, big snow is
inappropriate as big and snow are not used together. Heavy snow Grammatical devices: essentially the use of reference pronouns
would be appropriate. (e.g. it, this, one) and articles (e.g. There are two women in the
picture. The one on the right …).
Flexibility
Flexibility: the ability of candidates to adapt the language they Discourse markers: words or phrases which are primarily used in
use in order to give emphasis, to differentiate according to the spoken language to add meaning to the interaction, e.g. you know,
context, and to eliminate ambiguity. Examples of this would be you see, actually, basically, I mean, well, anyway, like.
reformulating and paraphrasing ideas.
Extent/extended stretches of language
Grammatical control Extent/extended stretches of language: the amount of language
Grammatical control: the ability to consistently use grammar produced by a candidate which should be appropriate to the task.
accurately and appropriately to convey intended meaning. Where Long-turn tasks require longer stretches of language, whereas
language specifications are provided at lower levels (as in A2 Key and tasks which involve discussion or answering questions could
B1 Preliminary), candidates may have control of only the simplest require shorter and extended responses.
exponents of the listed forms.

Speaking Assessment 87
 Relevance Turn and simple exchange
Relevance: a contribution that is related to the task and not Turn: everything a person says before someone else speaks.
about something completely different.
Simple exchange: a brief interaction which typically involves two
Repetition turns in the form of an initiation and a response, e.g. question–
Repetition: repeating the same idea instead of introducing new answer, suggestion–agreement.
ideas to develop the topic.

4. Pronunciation
Intelligible
Intelligible: a contribution which can generally be understood
by a non-EFL/ESOL specialist, even if the speaker has a strong or
unfamiliar accent.

Phonological features
Phonological features include the pronunciation of individual
sounds, word and sentence stress and intonation.

Individual sounds are:

• pronounced vowels, e.g. the / / in cat or the / / in bed
• diphthongs, when two vowels are rolled together to produce
one sound, e.g. the / / in host or the / / in hate
• consonants, e.g. the / / in cut or the / / in fish.

Stress: the emphasis laid on a syllable or word. Words of two or

more syllables have one syllable which stands out from the rest
because it is pronounced more loudly and clearly, and is longer
than the others, e.g. imPORtant. Word stress can also distinguish
between words, e.g. proTEST vs PROtest. In sentences, stress
can be used to indicate important meaning, e.g. WHY is that one
important? versus Why is THAT one important?

Intonation: the way the voice rises and falls, e.g. to convey
the speaker’s mood, to support meaning or to indicate
new information.

5. Interactive Communication
Development of the interaction
Development of the interaction: actively developing the
conversation, e.g. by saying more than the minimum in response
to the written or visual stimulus or to something the other
candidate/interlocutor has said; or by proactively involving the
other candidate with a suggestion or question about further
developing the topic (e.g. What about bringing a camera for the
holiday? or Why’s that?).

Initiating and responding

Initiating: starting a new turn by introducing a new idea or a new
development of the current topic.

Responding: replying or reacting to what the other candidate or

the interlocutor has said.

Prompting and supporting

Prompting: instances when the interlocutor repeats, or uses a
backup prompt or gesture in order to get the candidate to respond
or make a further contribution.

Supporting: instances when one candidate helps another

candidate, e.g. by providing a word they are looking for during a
discussion activity, or helping them develop an idea.

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Candidate Candidate
Name Number

Centre Centre
Name Number

Examination Examination
Title Details

Assessment
Date

Supervisor: If the candidate is ABSENT or has WITHDRAWN shade here

Advanced Speaking Mark Sheet

Date of test:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Month:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Day:

Marks Awarded:
0 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0
Grammatical Resource
0 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0
Lexical Resource
0 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0
Discourse Management
0 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0
Pronunciation
0 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0
Interactive Communication

0 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0

Global Achievement

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Test materials used: Part 2

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Part 3

Assessor's number Test Format Number of 2nd Candidate

Examiners:Candidates

2:2

Interlocutor's number Number of 3rd Candidate

2:3

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