One topic Sprechen B2 (telc) instead of seven

One Topic Instead of Seven: How to Prepare Effectively for the Oral Part of the telc B2 Exam

Introduction

Preparing for the oral part of the telc B2 exam often causes stress for students. The standard approach requires preparing 7 different topics – Travel, Book, Film, Music Event, Sports Event, Important Person, Important Experience. For many, this means: 7 separate vocabularies, 7 sets of facts, and 7 presentations.
However, there is an alternative strategy based on cognitive psychology and the principles of “scaffolding” (Bruner, 1976): combine all topics into one main topic and adapt it to the different exam tasks.

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Main Principles of the Strategy

1. All Topics = One Topic

Instead of preparing seven unrelated stories, the student chooses one “super topic” (for example, Queen and Freddie Mercury) and adapts it to each task.

• Travel → “I went to London and visited the Freddie Mercury Museum” (See exercise)
• Book → “I read Freddie Mercury’s biography” (See exercise)
• Film → “I watched the movie Bohemian Rhapsody” (See exercise)
• Music Event → “I attended a Queen tribute concert” (See exercise)
• Sports Event → “I was at a football match where We Are the Champions was played” (See exercise)
• Important Person → “Freddie Mercury as an inspiration” (See exercise)
• Important Experience → “My experience: reading the book + visiting London” (See exercise)

In this way, the entire vocabulary revolves around music, concerts, London, and the biography of Freddie Mercury.

📌 This reduces cognitive load, because you study one set of words and facts instead of seven different ones.

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2. The Exam ≠ an Interrogation

Many perceive the exam as an “interrogation in a police station.” In reality, examiners expect a structured and coherent presentation (Handbook telc, 2021).
You are not obliged to tell the truth. The exam is not a newspaper interview or a biographical investigation. The main thing is: speak coherently for 2–3 minutes, with correct connectors and simple facts.

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3. Interesting Facts Matter More Than Small Mistakes

Research in SLA (Second Language Acquisition) shows that listeners more easily accept speech with small grammar mistakes if it contains interesting facts.

• Rubin (1992) showed: when listening to foreign speech, listeners focus more on the content if the facts trigger emotions or curiosity.
• Nation (2001) wrote: “The communicative value of vocabulary and facts is more important than formal accuracy at B1–B2 level.”
• Schmidt (Noticing Hypothesis, 1990) confirmed: listeners notice mistakes mainly when speech is monotonous and poor in content.

📌 In other words: if you insert small but vivid facts (“Freddie Mercury wrote We Are the Champions to give people courage”), the examiner focuses on the interest, not whether you used accusative or dative correctly.

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4. Simple Words > Complex Structures

Cognitive load theory (Sweller, 1988) shows: under stress (e.g. in an exam), working memory is overloaded quickly. If a student tries to use overly complex structures, the likelihood of mistakes increases significantly.

Therefore, it is more effective to:

• speak in simple sentences,
• use standard phrases (First I would like to … then I will tell you … finally I will say …),
• add 2–3 “highlights” (interesting facts, names, numbers).

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5. Useful Phrases (Redemittel)

For the exam, not only the content is important, but also “signaling words” that show the structure of your speech. If you memorize 15–20 universal expressions, they will work for all 7 topics.

Introduction:

• I would like to talk about …
• My topic today is …
• First I will speak about …, then about …, and finally …

When telling the story:

• What is especially interesting for me is …
• I would like to give an example: …
• It was clear that …
• I personally think that …
• In my opinion …

Personal meaning:

• For me it was not only …, but also …
• The most important thing for me is that …
• I felt very happy because …

Conclusion:

• In conclusion, it can be said that …
• I believe that …
• Thank you very much for your attention.

📌 These phrases can be used as a “framework” in any topic. Even if the vocabulary is not perfect, the examiner sees: there is structure, there is coherence → higher score.

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Conclusion

This strategy allows you to:

1. Reduce exam preparation to one topic and minimal vocabulary.
2. Avoid the stress of “learning seven monologues by heart.”
3. Focus on content, not “truth” – examiners do not check your biography.
4. Make speech engaging through vivid facts, not complicated grammar structures.
5. Use the same set of phrases across all topics, making your speech more coherent and confident.

📌 In practice, students using this method can more easily maintain a 2–3 minute monologue and achieve higher scores for communicative competence.