The speaking topics

What does the speaking section cover?

Everyday life, at CEFR level A2. The first half of the speaking test is an interview on a subject the examiner picks from two options; the second half is describing a picture chosen from three. Neither half is a specialist subject and neither rewards technical vocabulary.

Source: INL

Which subjects come up?

Both the Luxembourgish and the English name are given, because you will meet the Luxembourgish one in a classroom and the English one in your own head.

What is actually being tested across all of them?

The subject is the vehicle, not the point. Whichever one you get, the same handful of language skills is being assessed — and they are what to practise.

Describing in the present

Saying how things are now: where you live, what your work involves, who is in your family. This is the backbone of an A2 answer and the thing to be fluent in.

Talking about experience in the past

What you did at the weekend, where you went on holiday, how you came to be in Luxembourg. A past tense that arrives without a pause is worth more than a wide vocabulary.

Giving an opinion, with a reason

Not just “I like it” but why. The reason is where the grammar shows — and “because” clauses are the most reliable way to demonstrate structure at this level.

Keeping the exchange going

Interactivity is one of the published assessment criteria. Asking a question back, saying you did not catch something, picking up a thread — all of it counts, and none of it is in a memorised answer.

Saying where things are

The picture half depends on it: on, under, next to, behind, in the middle. Ordinary conversation practice almost never exercises this, which is why it is the half people lose marks on.

Common mistakes across the topics

• Learning one topic thoroughly and the rest not at all. You get a choice of two, not a free pick, so depth in a single subject is the wrong shape of preparation.
• Memorising answers word for word. It is a conversation: the follow-up question is the part that decides your mark, and a recited answer collapses the moment it arrives.
• Preparing only to speak. Listening is assessed a level higher, and it is half of what you are being measured on.
• Skipping the picture task because it feels unpredictable. It is half the speaking mark, and the vocabulary it needs is narrow enough to actually finish learning.
• Answering in single words. “Yes, I do” ends the exchange; a sentence and a reason keeps it alive and shows the structures being marked.

How to prepare for the speaking topics

• Practise out loud, at speaking pace. Reading an answer silently trains nothing the exam measures.
• Take one subject area at a time and build answers from your own life — your job, your commune, your family. Real detail is easier to recall under pressure than invented detail.
• For each subject, rehearse a present-tense description, one past-tense experience and one opinion with a reason. That trio covers most of what is assessed.
• Spend deliberate time on describing pictures, and on the words for position and place.
• Record yourself and listen back. It is the fastest way to hear what an examiner will hear.

Where these facts come from

Everything on this page about the exam is traceable to an official source. Where something is not published, this page says so instead of guessing.

• Introduction to the SproochentestInstitut National des Langues — the body that runs the exam