11 lessons in the Speaking course
Work through them in order, or jump straight to the task that keeps costing you marks.
- 1StartStart hereFree
How TOEFL Speaking Works in 2026
TOEFL Speaking 2026 is eight minutes and eleven items: seven Listen and Repeat sentences plus a four-question interview at 44 seconds each, with no prep.
- 2StartLesson 2Monthly & Premium
How Speaking Is Scored: What Raters Listen For
TOEFL Speaking scoring in 2026: 55 raw points across 7 Listen and Repeat items and 4 interview answers, what raters listen for, and what separates 4 from 5.
- 3StartLesson 3Monthly & PremiumAudioRecord yourself
Listen and Repeat: The Core Technique
The TOEFL Listen and Repeat task gives you seven sentences, each played once. The chunking technique that holds a long sentence and delivers it as speech.
- 4StartLesson 4Monthly & PremiumAudioRecord yourself
Listen and Repeat: Stress, Rhythm and Intonation
Word-perfect repetitions still score four out of five when delivery is flat. The sentence stress, weak forms, linking and intonation that reach the top.
- 5StartLesson 5Monthly & PremiumAudioRecord yourself
Take an Interview: The Four-Question Progression
The four TOEFL interview questions climb in a fixed shape: personal recall, preference, agree or disagree, then policy. Know the shape, know what is coming.
- 6StartLesson 6Monthly & PremiumAudioRecord yourself
Take an Interview: A Framework for 44 Seconds
A structure for TOEFL interview answers that works with zero preparation: what to say in the first three seconds, and how to fill 44 seconds cleanly.
- 7StartLesson 7Monthly & PremiumAudioRecord yourself
Fluency, Pausing and Cutting Filler
Fluency on TOEFL Speaking is not speed. Which pauses are free, which cost you, and how to replace um and uh with markers that buy the same time.
- 8StartLesson 8Monthly & PremiumRecord yourself
Paraphrasing and Vocabulary Under Time Pressure
When the word will not come in a 44 second answer, going around it beats waiting for it. The paraphrase moves and the vocabulary range that actually scores.
- 9StartLesson 9Monthly & PremiumAudioRecord yourself
Recovery Moves for When Your Mind Goes Blank
What to do when you freeze, mishear the question, or run out of content at second twenty five. Trained recovery moves for every TOEFL Speaking failure mode.
- 10StartLesson 10Monthly & Premium
Microphone, Room and Recording Setup
A recording nobody can hear scores like one that was never made. How to set up your microphone, room and volume so TOEFL Speaking answers are captured.
- 11StartLesson 11Monthly & PremiumRecord yourself
The Habits That Quietly Cap Your Speaking Band
Ten habits that hold strong English speakers a band below their level on TOEFL Speaking, why each is invisible from the inside, and the fix for each.
What trips most students up in Speaking
These are the habits that cost marks most often. Each one is covered properly inside the course.
Expecting preparation time
There is none on the interview task. Recording starts as soon as the question finishes, and students who prepared on the old format lose their first several seconds to surprise, which is where the most marks go.
Trying to sound like a native speaker
Intelligibility is assessed, not accent. Stress, rhythm and intonation change how easily you are understood far more than individual sounds, and chasing an accent usually costs fluency.
Repeating rather than reproducing on Listen and Repeat
The task rewards matching the whole sentence, including its stress pattern, in seven seconds. Students who focus on getting every word perfect often lose the shape of the sentence, which is what is being measured.
Filling silence with filler
A short pause reads as thinking. A run of filler reads as not knowing, and it eats the 44 seconds you have. The recovery lesson covers what to do when you lose your thread, because everyone does.
Common questions
What students ask about the Speaking course.
Two parts, 8 minutes and 11 items: seven Listen and Repeat items at 7 seconds each, then a four-question interview with a pre-recorded researcher at 44 seconds per answer. There is no preparation time on the interview and recording starts automatically.
No. Recording begins as soon as the question finishes playing, which is the single biggest shock for students who prepared on the old format. The course trains the first five seconds specifically, because that is where most of the marks are lost.
Yes. The Speaking lessons run the real clock, record you, play it back, and only then reveal a model answer with an explanation of what makes it score. Comparing your own attempt against the model is the point.
Intelligibility is what is assessed, not whether you sound like a native speaker. The pronunciation lesson works on stress, rhythm and intonation, because those change how easily you are understood far more than individual sounds do.
Ready to test it?
Lessons teach the method. A timed attempt tells you whether it stuck.