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The three tasks
Entretien dirigé
Guided interview
A short spontaneous chat about you: your life, studies, work and interests. No preparation time.
Interaction
Role-play
You are given a situation and must ask the examiner questions to get specific information.
Point de vue
Express an opinion
Draw a theme from a short prompt and argue your view in a structured monologue.
How the twelve minutes are spent
The three tasks are very different in kind, and the order is deliberate. You start with the easiest, talking about yourself, so that your voice is warm before the harder work. You then have to produce questions rather than answers, which is the part candidates practise least. You finish with a monologue where you have to hold the floor alone.
Only the middle and the last task give you preparation time, and it is short. Use it to fix an order, not a script: three keywords are enough, and they should be the three things you will say, in the sequence you will say them.
Tâche 1 · the warm-up
Two minutes of spontaneous questions about your life, studies, work and interests. Answer in two or three sentences each, never one word, and add a reason or an example without being asked.
Tâche 2 · the interaction
You are given a situation and you must obtain information from the examiner. The whole task is judged on your questions, so prepare six question forms you can produce without thinking.
Tâche 3 · the point of view
A short prompt, then a structured monologue. Announce your position, give two or three arguments with an example each, then close. Silence at the end is normal.
What the examiner is listening for
The same four families as in writing: whether you did what the task asked, whether your speech is organised and coherent, how rich and precise your vocabulary is, and how accurate your grammar and pronunciation are. Fluency in the sense of speed is not a criterion on its own. Being understood, being organised and being relevant are.
The single fastest improvement for most candidates is spoken connectors. D’abord, ensuite, par exemple, en fait, c’est pourquoi and pour conclure make a monologue sound planned even when you are improvising, and they buy you half a second of thinking time each.
Talking about yourself
- Je travaille comme… depuis trois ans. job and duration
- Ce qui me plaît le plus, c’est… adding a reason
- Par exemple, la semaine dernière… adding an example
Asking for information
- Est-ce que vous pourriez me dire… ? polite indirect
- À quelle heure… ? Combien coûte… ? facts
- Est-il possible de… ? checking a condition
Defending a view
- À mon avis… / Selon moi… position
- D’une part… d’autre part… two arguments
- Pour conclure, je dirais que… closing
Habits to build before the session
- Record yourself. Reading your own transcript is the fastest way to see the words you overuse.
- Practise with a timer, because two minutes is longer than it feels and four and a half is much longer.
- Prepare five ready answers about yourself: studies, work, city, free time, plans. They cover most of tâche 1.
- Drill question forms out loud until inversion and est-ce que come without hesitation.
- Never memorise a full monologue. Memorise the skeleton and the connectors instead.
If people often ask you to repeat yourself, work through the pronunciation guide, starting with rhythm, liaisons and the nasal vowels. If your sentences break down when you try to say something complex, the grammar guide sections on questions, negation and relative pronouns are the ones that unlock spoken French fastest.
Questions people ask
Is it better to speak slowly or to fill the time?
Fill the time, but at a speed you can control. Examiners are listening for the range and accuracy of what you produce, and a candidate who stops after ninety seconds of a four-minute task has simply not given them enough to grade. Slower, complete sentences beat fast, broken ones.
What if I do not understand the examiner?
Ask. Pardon, pourriez-vous répéter, s’il vous plaît ? is a normal, correct thing to say and it is not penalised. Guessing at a question and answering something else is far more costly.
Can I take notes during preparation time?
Yes, for the tasks that give you preparation time. Write keywords and the order of your points, never full sentences, because reading a written text aloud is obvious and flattens your intonation.
Does my accent matter?
Only to the extent that it affects comprehension. What is graded is whether you are understood without effort. Rhythm and the nasal vowels do more for intelligibility than trying to sound native, which is why the pronunciation guide starts with rhythm rather than with individual sounds.