Cambridge FCE Exam Practice: Halloween Speaking

Happy October! If you’re teaching Cambridge exam classes, Halloween is a great opportunity to step away from the usual exam topics and make speaking practice a little more fun. Instead of another lesson about the history of Halloween, why not turn the entire Cambridge B2 First Speaking exam into a spooky challenge?

Last year, I was teaching a B2 Cambridge exam preparation class with a group of second-year students. They were all great…just a bit stressed about the upcoming speaking exam. So, I decided to turn the exam into something more fun: a Halloween-themed B2 Speaking Exam practice lesson. It ended up being one of my best classes! My students were excited to talk, laughed a lot, and even tried to steal each other’s questions because they had so much to say.

This lesson is designed for 31st October (Halloween) and it includes everything you need for a complete no-prep Halloween speaking class. You can find a presentation with all the questions and pictures (perfect for online classes or teachers who prefer not to print), examiner’s speaking guide with printable materials, which include the discussion topic and candidate pictures. All you need to do is download the files and start teaching! If you’re teaching teenagers, you might not have time to finish the entire lesson, and that’s okay! Since it’s a Halloween-themed ESL activity, I focus more on fun and fluency than on strict timing.

If you enjoy this format, you should have a look at another Halloween-themed speaking exams:

• Cambridge KEY, PET, FCE, CAE Exam Practice: Halloween Speaking (bundle)
• Cambridge KEY Exam Practice: Halloween Speaking
• Cambridge PET Exam Practice: Halloween Speaking
• Cambridge CAE Exam Practice: Halloween Speaking

So, keep scrolling to see how the lesson works and find the materials at the end of the post for free!

This B2-level Halloween speaking class follows the structure of the Cambridge Speaking Exam, with a fun twist. As you can see the class requires absolutely no preparation time. If you want to make the lesson more educational, ask students to take notes on each other’s performance, focusing on common mistakes and good language use. You can also time each part and finish the class with group feedback.

Part 1 – Warm-up:

Start by asking students to spell some Halloween vocabulary words (a fun surprise for them, hopefully?). Then, ask general questions about their likes and dislikes related to Halloween.

Part 2 – Individual Long Turn:

I designed this lesson for a group of four students, with four sets of Halloween-themed pictures. Each set comes with a main topic and a follow-up question for the other candidate. Don’t forget to give them one minute to talk!

Part 3 – Discussion Task:

Students work in pairs to discuss what makes a successful Halloween costume. They imagine preparing for a party and decide which qualities would make their costume stand out. It ends with an extra question: Which costume would win the award for best costume?

Part 4 – Opinion Discussion:

This is always my favorite part! Ask students about Halloween celebrations, traditions, and potential dangers. My students were so enthusiastic that we ran out of time for corrections, but that’s fine! It was a memorable, high-energy class that everyone enjoyed.

Feedback: Exam Practice Without the Stress

Although this is designed to be a fun Halloween lesson, you can easily make it more focused on exam preparation. Ask students to listen carefully to each other’s performances and make notes about good language, common mistakes and areas for improvement. You can also time each part of the exam and finish with group feedback. With teenagers in particular, however, I wouldn’t worry too much about sticking to the exact timings. Halloween is a chance to make exam preparation feel different, so I prefer to prioritise fluency, confidence and meaningful communication over getting through every task perfectly.

Click below to download all the materials for free and try this Halloween B2 Speaking Exam Lesson with your students. It’s a fun, low-prep way to combine Cambridge exam practice with seasonal speaking activities your students will love!