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Module 6 · Listening & Speaking Strands · Lesson 22

Speaking Part 3 Long Turn

The 2-minute individual response to your prompt card

CEFR C245–60 minAbstract argument & signposted discourseCore

Get talking · Section 1

4 min

Warm-up

activity
Two minutes on the clock

Speak for exactly 2 minutes on 'What makes a good teacher?' — no card, no notes, no re-starts. How did the second minute feel compared to the first?

reflection
Structure vs opinion

A Band-3 long turn = a list of opinions. A Band-5 long turn = a structured argument. What's the difference — and what carries the structure?

discussion
The landing sentence

Every strong long turn has a LANDING sentence — a one-liner that closes the two minutes cleanly. What might a landing sentence sound like?

Grammar focus · Section 2

8 min

Abstract nominalisation and cohesion — the grammar of the long turn

Quick rule

Nominalisation (turning verbs / adjectives into nouns) is what raises spoken register from B2 to genuine C2. 'People are unequal' → 'Inequality persists.' 'The government responded' → 'The government's response.' Combine with cohesive devices (this pattern / such a shift / that raises the question of…) and 2 minutes flows as one paragraph.

Examples

✓

Nominalisation: 'The reliance on algorithmic curation has quietly reshaped what we notice.'

✓

Nominalisation: 'What we're seeing is an erosion of shared reference points, not just a fragmentation of taste.'

✓

Cohesion via reference: 'That shift raises the deeper question of who defines cultural memory.'

✓

Cohesion via demonstrative: 'This pattern — the quiet privatisation of curation — is where I'd locate the real change.'

Quick check

Question 1.Which is the most C2 nominalised version of 'People trust experts less'?

Question 2.Best cohesive link back to a previous nominalisation:

Question 3.Which sentence would score highest for range in a long turn?

Question 4.Best LANDING sentence for the two minutes:

Question 5.Why is nominalisation Band-5 marked?

Answer all items, then check.

Quick check 1.Nominalisation raises spoken register mainly because it:

Quick check 2.'This shift raises the deeper question of…' is an example of:

Answer all items, then check.
Full breakdown in Grammar Bank → Hedging language

Vocabulary · Section 3

6 min

Words & phrases to own

1

the erosion of

gradual weakening — high-density nominal noun phrase for negative change

e.g. The erosion of shared reference points is quieter than the culture-war headlines suggest.

Use it now

Reformulate 'X is getting weaker' as 'the erosion of X'.

↻ Recycled in speaking

2

a growing reliance on

creeping dependence — nominalises a trend verb

e.g. A growing reliance on algorithmic curation shapes what we notice.

Use it now

Turn 'people rely more on X' into 'a growing reliance on X'.

↻ Recycled in speaking

3

what we're seeing is

signposting frame that opens a nominalised observation

e.g. What we're seeing is a quiet privatisation of what used to be public culture.

Use it now

Open one long-turn paragraph with 'what we're seeing is…'.

↻ Recycled in speaking

4

that raises the (deeper) question of

cohesive move — refers back and elevates the register

e.g. That raises the deeper question of who now defines cultural memory.

Use it now

Use it to link paragraph 2 to paragraph 1 in your long turn.

↻ Recycled in speaking

5

at the heart of this is

signposting frame that names the underlying issue

e.g. At the heart of this is a shift in who curates public attention.

Use it now

Use to open the STANCE move.

↻ Recycled in speaking

6

so perhaps the real question isn't X, but Y

portable reframing landing sentence — closes 2 minutes cleanly

e.g. So perhaps the real question isn't whether culture is fragmenting, but who is doing the fragmenting.

Use it now

Draft one for every prompt card in today's stimulus.

↻ Recycled in speaking

Matching
Match each signposting frame to the move it performs in the long turn.

Tap an item on the left, then tap its match on the right.

Answer all items, then check.
Activate the language

Pair / group discussion

  • Which of today's frames could you carry into ANY topic — and which are topic-bound?
  • Which move do you avoid naturally, and why?

Complete each stem about yourself

  • What we're seeing is ______.…
  • At the heart of this is ______.…
  • That raises the deeper question of ______.…
  • So perhaps the real question isn't ______, but ______.…

Rank & justify

Rank by how much each frame REWARDS the 2-minute long turn (discourse density × signposting value).

  • so perhaps the real question isn't X, but Y
  • what we're seeing is
  • I think
  • at the heart of this is
  • that raises the deeper question of

Quick write (60 seconds)

Write a 90-second long-turn opening on 'the role of tradition in modern life' — must include at least THREE of today's frames.

More in Vocabulary Bank → Society & culture

Pronunciation · Section 4

3 min

Paragraph intonation — sounding like one argument, not five sentences

The 2-minute long turn is a single spoken paragraph. The intonation cue is a slight falling pitch across each idea, with a small pitch RESET at each signposting frame ('what we're seeing is…', 'at the heart of this is…', 'so perhaps the real question…'). Flat, sentence-by-sentence delivery makes the two minutes sound like five disconnected answers. The reset makes it sound like paragraphs.

  • WHAT we're SEEing ↘ is a QUIet priVAtiSAtion ↘ of CULture ↘.
  • at the HEART of this ↘ is a SHIFT in WHO CURates atTENtion ↘.
  • THAT raises the DEEPer QUESTion ↗ of who deFINES cultural MEMory ↘.
  • SO perHAPS the REAL QUESTion ↘ isn't WHEther culture is CHANGing ↘ but WHO is CHANGing it ↘.

Reading · Section 5

8 min

Annotated Band-5 long-turn transcript — 2 minutes on 'shared culture in the digital age'

Working model · for analysis

Annotated Band-5 long-turn transcript — 2 minutes on 'shared culture in the digital age'

Read for the four moves — FRAME → POINT → EXAMPLE → STANCE — and for the landing sentence at the end.

C2 candidate · annotated by examiner · Sample sitting

EXAMINER: 'I'd like you to talk on your own for about two minutes. Here is your prompt card. What is the value of shared cultural experience in the digital age? You can consider whether shared cultural reference points still exist, whether their loss matters, and what might replace them.'

CANDIDATE (2 min): What we're seeing, I think, is a quiet privatisation of what used to be shared cultural life. A generation ago, four or five television channels and a handful of newspapers meant that a country could plausibly have shared reference points — a comedy sketch, a football moment, a political scandal — that almost everyone had encountered. That common ground is thinning.

At the heart of this is a growing reliance on algorithmic curation. My news feed and my neighbour's news feed no longer overlap, and that isn't accidental — it's the product of a business model that rewards engagement over shared attention. The result is what I'd call an erosion of shared reference: not the disappearance of culture, but the fracturing of it into ten thousand micro-audiences.

Does it matter? I'd argue that it does, and less for nostalgic reasons than for democratic ones. A society that has stopped sharing stories has also stopped sharing the vocabulary needed to argue about them. Granted, the losses are uneven — plenty of previously excluded voices have gained ground in the process. That said, the deeper question, I think, is whether we're replacing broadcast culture with anything cohesive at all, or simply with a quieter, more customised loneliness.

So perhaps the real question isn't whether shared culture has vanished, but whether we're willing to design the digital tools that might rebuild it.

Question 1.Which move OPENS the long turn?

Question 2.Which sentence is the LANDING?

Question 3.How does the candidate connect paragraphs 1 and 2?

Question 4.The candidate concedes with:

Question 5.Why does the candidate score Band 5?

Answer all items, then check.

Listening · Section 6

8 min

Listening (spiral) — expert monologue on cultural fragmentation

Notes

Pre-listen brief

  • ▸You will hear the media sociologist Dr Priya Balasubramanian on cultural fragmentation.
  • ▸Answer 4 multiple-choice questions on her position.
  • ▸Then borrow at least TWO of her nominalisations into your own long turn that follows.

Listening audio

Tap play to listen. Scrub the bar or use ± 5 s to jump.

Show transcript

Interviewer (Ramy, English, m):Priya, is 'shared culture' actually disappearing, or are we just missing the version we grew up with?

Dr Priya Balasubramanian (English, f, sociologist):Both, really. The version we grew up with — a small number of channels, a common newspaper, a broadly shared week of television — that's genuinely gone, and it isn't coming back. What replaces it is more interesting than the nostalgic story suggests. We now have thousands of intense, connected micro-cultures, each with their own reference points, their own vocabulary, and increasingly, their own moral universe. What's eroding isn't culture; it's the shared surface that let strangers talk to each other about it.

Interviewer:And why does that matter beyond nostalgia?

Dr Priya Balasubramanian:Because democracy runs on shared vocabulary. You can't argue productively about immigration or climate or free speech if your interlocutor is embedded in an entirely different set of reference points, seeing entirely different news items, and using words like 'freedom' or 'safety' to mean something quite different. The fragmentation of culture is, quietly, the fragmentation of the space in which democratic argument was possible.

Question 1.Priya says the pre-digital shared culture is:

Question 2.What is 'eroding', in her view?

Question 3.Her stance on why fragmentation matters:

Question 4.Which of her nominalisations would strengthen YOUR long turn?

Answer all items, then check.

Question 1.Why does Dr Balasubramanian say 'that's genuinely gone, and it isn't coming back' about pre-digital shared culture?

Answer all items, then check.

Visual stimulus · Section 7

3 min

CPE Speaking Part 3 · prompt card (authentic format)

The examiner hands you a card with ONE central question and THREE sub-questions. You do NOT need to address all three — select the two that best let you argue. You have ~10 seconds to think and then ~2 minutes to speak.

Notes

Card A — Shared culture in the digital age

  • ▸What is the value of shared cultural experience in the digital age?
  • ▸· Do shared cultural reference points still exist?
  • ▸· Does the loss of shared culture matter, and to whom?
  • ▸· What, if anything, might replace it?
  • ▸Talk on your own for about two minutes.

Notes

Card B — The changing meaning of work

  • ▸How is the meaning of work changing in your society?
  • ▸· What role does work play in personal identity today?
  • ▸· Have expectations of what work should provide shifted?
  • ▸· What are the consequences of these changes?
  • ▸Talk on your own for about two minutes.

Notes

Card C — The idea of progress

  • ▸Is 'progress' still a useful idea in the twenty-first century?
  • ▸· In which areas of life is progress most visible?
  • ▸· Where has the idea of progress lost credibility?
  • ▸· What replaces it — if anything?
  • ▸Talk on your own for about two minutes.

Discuss in pairs

Choose ONE card. In 10 seconds, decide which TWO sub-questions you will build the long turn around, and what your landing sentence will be BEFORE you start speaking.

Exam skills · Section 8

3 min

CPE Speaking Part 3 · Long Turn

Strategy

  1. 1.In your 10-second thinking time: pick TWO sub-questions (not three) and pre-write your LANDING sentence in your head. Everything between will find you.
  2. 2.Open with a FRAME ('What we're seeing is…' / 'At the heart of this is…'). Never with 'I think maybe…'.
  3. 3.Aim for THREE paragraph beats: (1) frame + situate, (2) elaborate + example, (3) stance + landing.
  4. 4.Signpost transitions between paragraphs ('At the heart of this is…' / 'That raises the deeper question of…').
  5. 5.Use at least THREE nominalised abstract noun phrases (the erosion of…, a growing reliance on…, the fragmentation of…).
  6. 6.Close with the LANDING sentence. Do NOT trail off. 'So perhaps the real question isn't X, but Y' is the safest portable landing.
  7. 7.Pacing rule: paragraph 1 finishes around 30–40 seconds; paragraph 3 begins around 1:20. Time yourself in rehearsal.

Example

LANDING template: 'So perhaps the real question isn't whether ______, but ______.'

Practice · Section 9

7 min

Fill in the blank

Question 1.What we're seeing is an ____ of trust in expertise.

Question 2.A growing ____ on algorithmic curation is reshaping public attention.

Question 3.At the ____ of this is a shift in who curates culture.

Question 4.That raises the ____ question of who defines cultural memory.

Question 5.So perhaps the ____ question isn't whether culture is fragmenting, but who's doing the fragmenting.

Question 6.The ____ of shared reference points is quieter than the headlines suggest.

Answer all items, then check.
Sentence transformation
Type a short answer (1–3 words)

Q1.Transform using nominalisation: 'People trust experts less nowadays.' → 'There has been ___ in expertise.'

Q2.Complete the frame: 'What we're seeing is a quiet ___ of what used to be shared cultural life.'

Q3.Complete the cohesive link: 'That shift raises the deeper ___ of who defines cultural memory.'

Q4.Supply the missing nominalisation: 'A growing ___ on algorithmic curation has reshaped what we notice.'

Answer all items, then check.

Writing · Section 10

4 min

Put it in writing

Your task

Plan (in 4 minutes) YOUR portable long-turn skeleton — a template you could deploy against ANY CPE Part 3 card. Three paragraph beats + one landing sentence.

  • • Paragraph 1: a FRAME formula you can bend to any topic ('What we're seeing, I think, is ______.').
  • • Paragraph 2: an ELABORATE + example move ('At the heart of this is ______. For instance, ______.').
  • • Paragraph 3: a STANCE + LANDING pair ('I'd argue that ______. So perhaps the real question isn't ______, but ______.').
  • • The skeleton must work on at least TWO of the three cards in today's stimulus.

Before you submit

  • ☐ Skeleton uses AT LEAST three signposting frames from today's Vocab.
  • ☐ Includes AT LEAST three nominalised abstract noun phrases.
  • ☐ Landing sentence is a single line, under 25 spoken seconds.
  • ☐ Tested aloud on Card A and Card C — both work without rewriting the frame.

Write your answer here

Restoring…

0 words

Show model answer

FRAME: 'What we're seeing, I think, is a quiet ______ of ______.' ELABORATE: 'At the heart of this is a growing reliance on ______. For instance, ______.' STANCE + LANDING: 'I'd argue that this matters less for ______ reasons than for ______ ones. So perhaps the real question isn't whether ______, but who now decides ______.'

Speaking · Section 11

6 min

Make it a real conversation

CPE Speaking Part 3 long turn — full timed sittings × 2 (6 minutes). FIRST sitting: Card A (shared culture). SECOND sitting: Card B or C. Rules: exactly 2 minutes each, no re-starts, must include the FRAME → ELABORATE → STANCE + LANDING shape, must land on a clean landing sentence. Between sittings, tally which of the four moves were visible and which of today's abstract noun phrases were used.

After each 2-minute sitting, tick which moves were audibly present and count the abstract noun phrases used.

Did your long turn sound like ONE structured argument, or FIVE separate answers?

A

All 4 moves + landing sentence

Band-5 shape. Next: sharpen the abstract lexis.

B

3 moves — missing landing

You trailed off. Rehearse the 'So perhaps the real question isn't X, but Y' template until it's automatic.

C

Only frame + stance

Missing the ELABORATE beat. Force yourself to say 'At the heart of this is…' in paragraph 2.

D

List of opinions

No signposting. Reset with one frame per paragraph next sitting.

Useful phrases

  • What we're seeing, I think, is ______.
  • At the heart of this is a growing reliance on ______.
  • The erosion of ______ is quieter than the headlines suggest.
  • I'd argue that this matters less for ______ reasons than for ______ ones.
  • That raises the deeper question of ______.
  • So perhaps the real question isn't ______, but ______.
Dialogue completion
Complete the coaching dialogue by choosing the option that best fits a Band-5 long-turn discussion of the reading passage's topic.
  • TeacherSo, thinking about shared culture today — what's your opening frame going to be?
  • Student_______________
  • TeacherGood. Now move to your second beat — what's driving that?
  • Student_______________
  • TeacherNice nominalisation. And does it matter?
  • StudentI'd argue it does, and less for nostalgic reasons than for democratic ones.
  • TeacherNow land it — close the two minutes.
  • Student_______________
  • TeacherThat's a clean four-move long turn.
Answer all items, then check.

Your speaking notes

Restoring…
More in Useful Expressions → Giving opinions

Optional · Teacher-led

Teacher Activities

Stretches if time allows. All work 1:1. ~18 min total

Homework · Section 12

Take-home

Take it home

speaking

Record yourself doing a FULL 2-minute long turn on Card B (the changing meaning of work). Listen back with today's four-move checklist. Re-record ONCE.

vocab

Build a 15-item C2 nominalisation bank across three domains (society, technology, culture): 5 × 'the ___ of ___' noun phrases per domain. Memorise 6 total.

Finished? Reveal the answer key to self-check your work.

grammar

Rewrite 5 flat verb sentences as C2 nominalised noun phrases. (a) 'People trust experts less.' (b) 'Governments respond more slowly.' (c) 'Companies rely too much on algorithms.' (d) 'Communities lose shared traditions.' (e) 'Media outlets fragment their audiences.'

Finished? Reveal the answer key to self-check your work.

writing

Draft the 3-paragraph skeleton (frame → elaborate + example → stance + landing) for all THREE cards in today's stimulus. Fifty words per card maximum. Take them into your next tutorial.

Recap · Section 13

Wrap-up

What you've learned

  • CPE Part 3 opens SOLO: a 2-minute long turn on a written prompt card. The collab task is Part 2.
  • You choose which two sub-questions to build around — you don't have to answer all three.
  • Shape: FRAME → ELABORATE + example → STANCE + LANDING. Three beats, two minutes, one paragraph.
  • Nominalisation ('the erosion of…', 'a growing reliance on…') is the single biggest lever from Band 3 to Band 5.
  • Pre-plan the landing sentence in your 10-second thinking time. 'So perhaps the real question isn't X, but Y' is portable.

Extra Practice

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