Practice
TEF Canada and TCF Canada speaking practice
Choose a task, read the subject, start the timer and speak aloud until it stops. Then tick what went well on the checklist, and try another subject.
Subject
Une école de langues propose des cours du soir. Vous appelez pour vous renseigner sur les groupes, les dates et l’inscription.
Speak aloud as if the examiner were in front of you; record yourself on your phone if you want to listen back.
Time
5:00
Self-assessment checklist: 0 of 7 points ticked
Our own checklist, inspired by what the tasks ask: it is not the official marking grid. Your text is not sent or saved.
Speaking can look impossible to prepare without a partner. Much of it can be rehearsed alone: the format, the timing and the habit of talking without long pauses. This page gives the oral tasks of the TEF Canada and TCF Canada with a subject written by Radif Partners and a timer. The TEF Canada speaking test lasts 15 minutes: section A (5 minutes) asks you to obtain information, section B (10 minutes) to convince someone. The TCF Canada has 3 tasks in 12 minutes: a guided interview of 2 minutes, an interaction of 3 min 30 s after 2 minutes of preparation, and a point of view of 4 min 30 s. NCLC 7 in speaking starts at 456 on the TEF and at 10 out of 20 on the TCF. For citizenship, speaking is one of the two skills IRCC checks, at NCLC 4. The site records nothing: if you want to hear yourself, use your phone's recorder, and treat our checklist as a reminder, not as the examiners' grid.
My preparation plan
Total hours
40
| Per skill (four) | 10.0 h |
| Mock sections to schedule | 4 |
Equal split: our suggestion, not an official rule.
Charts, converters and questions by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How charts and questions are built
The oral tasks of both tests
| Test and task | What you do | Time |
|---|---|---|
| TEF Canada, section A | ask questions to obtain information | 5 min |
| TEF Canada, section B | convince the other person | 10 min |
| TCF Canada, task 1 | guided interview | 2 min |
| TCF Canada, task 2 | interaction | 2 min preparation, then 3 min 30 s |
| TCF Canada, task 3 | give a point of view | 4 min 30 s |
Section B of the TEF is twice as long as section A, and convincing someone means answering objections, not reciting arguments. On the TCF, the interaction task is the only one with preparation time, which the timer on this page counts separately before the speaking time. Sources: the CCI presentation and the TCF candidate manual.
Practising alone with the timer
Select a task: the subject appears, written by Radif Partners in the spirit of the official task. Press "Start" and speak aloud, standing if it helps, as if the examiner were across the table. For the TCF interaction, the clock first shows the preparation time, then the speaking time. When it reaches zero, stop, even mid-sentence: learning how much fits in the time is half the exercise. Then go through the seven-point checklist (task completed, no long silences, ideas linked, varied vocabulary, verb tenses, clear pronunciation, arguments for the opinion tasks) and tick only what was true. "Another subject" changes the situation for the same task.
Speaking for citizenship and for Express Entry
For citizenship, the IRCC page asks NCLC 4 in speaking and listening, which for the TEF Canada and TCF Canada means CEFR B1 or higher; on the TEF chart NCLC 4 in speaking starts at 328. For Express Entry, speaking is converted to its own NCLC like the other three skills, and NCLC 7 starts at 456 on the TEF and 10 out of 20 on the TCF. The citizenship language page lists every accepted test.
What examiners look at, and what we cannot judge
The CCI says that TEF speaking is assessed by two examiners. The TCF gives a mark out of 20. Our checklist sums up what the tasks plainly ask (doing the task, keeping the exchange going, organising ideas, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation), but it is our own list, and nothing on this page measures your accent or your grammar. A French speaker listening to a recording of you will tell you more than any tick box.
A speaking routine (our suggestion)
Do one or two timed tasks a day, short and often rather than one long session a week. Record yourself on your phone, listen once, write down the three words or structures you were missing, and do the same task again with a new subject. Every few days, ask someone to play the examiner for section A or the TCF interaction, since those depend on questions you cannot predict. The listening practice trains the other half of the oral pair, and the plan calculator under the summary spreads your weekly hours across the four skills.