Épreuve
Production orale
Level
B2
Time
20 min
Marks
/25
The speaking exam, demystified
Thirty minutes alone with one document, then about twenty with an examiner. Here is the whole shape of the B2 oral, and where the 25 points sit.
By the end of this lesson
- Name the frame of the B2 oral: two topics drawn, one kept, 30 minutes of preparation, about 20 minutes with the examiner.
- Say where each of the 25 points comes from, and why 15 of them reward your French rather than your ideas.
- Recognise the three kinds of document the exam hands you, and what your monologue owes them.
- Handle the meeting itself: the greeting, your eyes, your notes, and the question you didn't catch.
- Set up a training routine that runs on the press, your phone and five minutes a day.
The oral is the paper candidates picture least clearly. Everyone knows that writing wants 250 words in an hour. Far fewer can tell you who picks the topic, or how long they talk on their own. Fewer still know what the examiner is writing down.
This lesson gives you the shape of the épreuve, the exam paper for one skill. You get the timings, the point split, the kind of document you will draw, and what the examiner watches while you speak. It closes with a training routine you can start this week.
Two topics, thirty minutes, twenty-five points
Production orale is the fourth and last paper of the B2, and you take it alone. It begins before you meet the examiner. You draw two sujets (two topic sheets), read both quickly, and keep the one you would rather defend. Choose in a minute, because every minute of hesitation comes out of your preparation.
You then get 30 minutes on your own, in a preparation room or at the back of the exam room. The notes you write there are the only support you will have. The passation, your time with the examiner, runs about 20 minutes and splits in two.
The monologue suivi comes first: roughly 6 minutes where you speak on your own. The débat follows: roughly 11 minutes of exchange with the examiner. You are expected to start talking as soon as you sit down, so nobody will invite you to begin.
| What is marked | Points |
|---|---|
| Monologue suivi, about 6 minutes | 5 |
| Débat with the examiner, about 11 minutes | 5 |
| Your French: vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation | 15 |
| Total | 25 |
That table deserves a second read, because it changes how you prepare. Ten points pay for what you say. Fifteen pay for how you say it, and they are collected across the whole twenty minutes. A sharp idea in broken French scores lower than a simple idea in clean French.
Two more numbers govern the whole diploma. You need 50 out of 100 across the four papers to pass. And anything under 5 out of 25 in a single paper ends it, however strong the other three are. So your talk doesn't have to be remarkable. It has to be structured, on topic, and audible.
Point d'étape 1/4
0 / 3
Q1How many topics do you draw at the start of the oral, and how many do you keep?
Q2How long do you prepare, and how long do you then spend with the examiner?
Q3Out of the 25 points, how many reward your French rather than the content of your ideas?
The document you draw
Each sujet carries one short document, and it nearly always comes from the press. Three genres turn up: a press article, a dépêche (a short news agency wire) and a blog extract. All three are recent, all three fit on part of a page, and all three set up a debate.
The topics stay inside public life. In the tout public track (the general option), expect society and culture: school, screens, food, transport, city life, the way people work. The professional option leans toward jobs, training and workplace rules. Neither track needs specialist knowledge, so an informed citizen's opinion is exactly what is wanted.
Sujet type · monologue suiviB2 · extrait de presse
Depuis janvier, une trentaine d'entreprises françaises expérimentent la semaine de quatre jours sans baisse de salaire. Les directions y voient un moyen d'attirer des candidats et de faire reculer l'absentéisme. Les syndicats, eux, redoutent une charge de travail simplement redistribuée sur quatre journées plus longues. Vous dégagerez le problème soulevé par ce document, puis vous présenterez votre opinion de manière argumentée.
ENSince January, around thirty French companies have been trialling a four-day week with no drop in pay. Management sees a way to attract applicants and bring absence rates down. The unions fear the same workload simply repacked into four longer days. Identify the problem this document raises, then present your opinion with arguments.
Now the trap that costs the most points. The document is your starting point, not your subject. The examiner isn't checking whether you understood every line of it. Your job is to name the problem it raises, then defend your own answer to that problem. A candidate who spends four minutes retelling the article has spent most of the monologue on the one activity that earns nothing.
Two sentences of framing are plenty: the source, the date, and what the text is about. Then you move to your question and your position. The next lesson in this group shows you how to build that question out of the document.
Point d'étape 2/4
0 / 3
Q1Which line names the three kinds of document the speaking exam uses?
Q2Your monologue starts. What do you do with the document you drew?
Q3How much of your six minutes should presenting the document take?
Facing the examiner
Everything from the first hello counts. You are being marked on interaction, and interaction starts with an ordinary polite exchange. Use vous with the examiner from your first word to your last. Greet them when you arrive and thank them when you leave.
Your notes are the delicate part. They exist so you can glance down, find your next idea, and look back up. Read them aloud and three things go wrong at once. Your eyes leave the examiner. Your voice flattens into a recitation. And written sentences read out loud always sound written. So take your notes as keywords and short phrases, never as full sentences, because you can't read out what you never wrote.
Look at the examiner while you talk, and let your hands move as they would in any conversation. A still body and a fixed stare make even a good answer sound learned by heart. Slow down instead of speeding up when you feel nervous, since pronunciation is worth points and speed is worth none.
You will miss a question at some point in the débat, and that's normal. Ask for it again, politely, in French. Guessing at a half-heard question wastes a minute and answers something nobody asked.
Modèle · les formules du jour J
Bonjour, madame. Je vais vous présenter le document que j'ai choisi.
L'ouverture. You speak first, so arrive with this line ready. It buys you five calm seconds before the content has to start.
Pourriez-vous répéter la question, s'il vous plaît ? Je ne suis pas sûr de l'avoir bien comprise.
Une question manquée. Asking costs four seconds and it's correct French. Answering the wrong question costs you a minute of the débat.
C'est une question intéressante. Je dirais que tout dépend du contexte.
Le temps de réfléchir. A short opener gives your brain two seconds to find the answer. Use it once or twice, not before every reply.
Je vous remercie, madame. Au revoir et bonne journée.
La sortie. The test isn't over until you have left the room. Two polite seconds keep the last impression a good one.
Point d'étape 3/4
0 / 3
Q1May you read out the notes you wrote during preparation?
Q2You did not catch the examiner's question during the débat. What do you do?
Q3Which behaviour matches what the examiner expects during the exchange?
Training before the day
Nobody improvises a six-minute talk on a topic they have never thought about. But you can walk in with opinions on the fifteen or so themes the exam keeps coming back to. Three habits get you there, and none of them takes an evening.
Read the press for five minutes a day. Take one short article and say out loud, in one question, what problem it raises. That's precisely the skill the monologue tests, and you can practise it while your coffee cools.
Record yourself. Your phone is the cheapest examiner you will ever get. Speak for six minutes on any topic, then listen back once, with a pen. You will hear the repeated je pense que, the long silences, and the word endings you swallow. A mirror does a similar job for your posture and your hands.
Drill the language the oral leans on. Start with opinion structures, so you can say the same thing four ways. Selon moi, je suis convaincu que, il me semble que, à mon avis. Add the connectors that make your plan audible, such as tout d'abord, par ailleurs, en revanche, par conséquent and en définitive. Then review four grammar points the oral relies on: the subjunctive, the conditional, hypothesis with si, and the tenses of the past.
One last habit, and it's the one most candidates skip. During your 30 minutes of preparation, write down the three questions you would ask if you were the examiner. Prepare an answer to each. That turns the débat into a conversation you have already had once.
Before you call yourself ready, answer four questions honestly. Can I turn a short press article into one clear problem? Can I use the 30 minutes to build a plan and take usable notes? Can I restate one opinion with four different structures? Can I answer three questions on my topic without freezing? A no anywhere tells you which of the next four lessons to open first.
Point d'étape 4/4
0 / 3
Q1Which pair of habits trains the oral best at home?
Q2Why does reading the press count as speaking practice?
Q3Which self-check tells you that lesson two of this group is the one to open first?
Key takeaways
- Two sujets drawn, one kept. Then 30 minutes alone, then about 20 minutes with the examiner.
- Monologue suivi, about 6 minutes, 5 points. Débat, about 11 minutes, 5 points.
- The other 15 points are linguistic: vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation. They are marked across the whole 20 minutes.
- The document starts you off. Raise the problem it poses and defend a position instead of summarising it.
- Vous throughout, a greeting at both ends, eyes up, notes you glance at and never read.