CELPIP Speaking Templates: A Structure for All 8 Tasks

• Why a structure beats memorised scripts
• Task 1: Giving Advice
• Task 2: Personal Experience
• Task 3: Describing a Scene
• Task 4: Making Predictions
• Task 5: Comparing and Persuading
• Task 6: Difficult Situation
• Task 7: Expressing Opinions
• Task 8: Unusual Situation
• How to practise the templates free
• Common mistakes

A CELPIP Speaking template is a fixed order of moves you reuse in every task, not a script you memorise. Speaking is 8 tasks in 15–20 minutes and the task types are published in advance, so the work you can do before test day is deciding the shape of an answer. Each task below gets a skeleton, a model opening line, the mistake that costs the most and a time budget.

Why a structure beats memorised scripts

Prompts change; task types do not. A rehearsed paragraph fits only the prompt it was written for, and when the scene differs you rebuild the answer with the clock running. A skeleton survives that, because the moves do not depend on the content.

Time is the second reason. Fifteen to twenty minutes across eight tasks is roughly two minutes per task on average once the preparation windows are set aside, so there is no room to draft, only to decide.

The moves and model lines below are teaching illustrations written for this guide, not official examples; task names and order come from the published CELPIP General guidebook.

What template works for Task 1?

Task 1: Giving Advice

1. Name the person and the decision.
2. Give the recommendation outright.
3. Add two reasons that fit their situation.
4. Offer one step for this week.
5. Close by confirming the plan is workable.

Model opening: “If I were in your position, I would take the evening class rather than the weekend one, and here is why.”

Highest-cost mistake: restating the problem and sympathising for half the response before advising anything.

Time budget: about two minutes; the recommendation should be out before the halfway point.

What template works for Task 2?

Task 2: Talking about a Personal Experience

1. Place the scene: when and where.
2. Say who was there and what was at stake.
3. Tell what happened, in order.
4. Give the turning point in one sentence.
5. Close with what you took from it.

Model opening: “Two winters ago I missed the last bus home from a night shift, and it changed how I plan my week.”

Highest-cost mistake: answering with habits rather than an event; “I often travel by bus” is a routine, not a story.

Time budget: about two minutes, with the setup kept to the first two sentences.

What template works for Task 3?

Task 3: Describing a Scene

1. One sentence for setting and mood.
2. Place the people and what they are doing.
3. Add two or three details that matter.
4. Include one detail that shows interpretation.
5. Close on what the scene suggests.

Model opening: “This is a market on a Saturday morning, and everyone in it seems to be running a little late.”

Highest-cost mistake: the inventory — many weak details in place of four strong ones, with nothing holding them together.

Time budget: about two minutes; be on the third move by the halfway mark.

What template works for Task 4?

Task 4: Making Predictions

1. State the prediction in your first sentence.
2. Anchor it in something visible.
3. Say what changes over the next few minutes.
4. Name one thing that could alter the outcome.
5. Return to your prediction to close.

Model opening: “Within the next ten minutes the rain will send most of the crowd under the awning, and the queue will stop moving.”

Highest-cost mistake: hedging — describing the scene again instead of committing, which leaves the task undone.

Time budget: roughly two minutes, with the prediction inside the first fifteen.

What template works for Task 5?

Task 5: Comparing and Persuading

1. Name the option you will defend.
2. Set out two or three criteria.
3. Acknowledge the other option’s real strength.
4. Show why your option wins on those criteria.
5. Recommend it plainly to close.

Model opening: “Both would work, but I would choose the earlier start time, and I will tell you the test I am applying.”

Highest-cost mistake: staying neutral. Ending with both options being good leaves the listener without the decision the task asks for.

Time budget: about two minutes; give each criterion a few seconds of support.

What template works for Task 6?

Task 6: Dealing with a Difficult Situation

1. Acknowledge the difficulty and their position.
2. State the action you have decided on.
3. Give one reason it is right.
4. Offer a concrete next step.
5. Close on what happens after that.

Model opening: “I understand why the deadline slipped past you, and I would rather sort it out today than leave it until Monday.”

Highest-cost mistake: the apology loop — naming the difficulty several times without choosing an action.

Time budget: about two minutes; the decision belongs in the first third.

What template works for Task 7?

Task 7: Expressing Opinions

1. Take the position in the first sentence.
2. Give two reasons with support.
3. Add one example.
4. Answer the strongest counter-argument.
5. Restate the position in one line.

Model opening: “I would not make that rule compulsory, although I can see why it looks fair at first glance.”

Highest-cost mistake: repetition — the same position in fresh words crowds out the evidence that would carry it.

Time budget: about two minutes; two supported reasons and an example fill it.

What template works for Task 8?

Task 8: Describing an Unusual Situation

1. Signal what is unusual immediately.
2. Describe what you can see.
3. Point out the most striking feature.
4. Offer a plausible explanation.
5. Close with your own reaction.

Model opening: “The odd thing about this street is that every shop window is covered while the lights inside are all on.”

Highest-cost mistake: burying the unusual element at the end of a long neutral description, so the listener never learns what is odd.

Time budget: about two minutes; the explanation is worth fifteen seconds.

How to practise the templates free

Structure is learned under the clock, not by reading. Pick one task, set a timer for two minutes, record one answer using only that task’s moves, then listen back twice: once for the skeleton, once for pace.

These practice pages follow the same published order. Free CELPIP Speaking practice sets out the eight tasks with prompts to record, and Speaking Test 1 runs all eight in sequence. For technique per task see CELPIP Speaking tips and practice; for section timings, the CELPIP test format page; for Speaking in context, our full mock tests.

The same shape transfers to Writing, where CELPIP Writing Task 2 is an opinion answer with a comparable structure; the practice test index lists every paper on the site.

Common mistakes

• Spending the opening on a warm-up. “That is a good question” uses clock before you have said anything useful.
• Stopping when the prepared material runs out. Silence earns nothing; add another example instead.
• Ignoring the listener’s stated preference in Tasks 5 and 6, where the prompt gives the other person a position you are expected to address.
• Treating the model lines above as answers to memorise. They show an opening move; the content has to come from the prompt in front of you.

Last verified: 15 October 2026