Ok, if you’ve taken our free TOEFL Speaking 2026 practice test, you already know the Interview Task feels different.
It’s not about reading a short text or summarizing a lecture anymore. You’re now talking to an interviewer — a digital researcher who asks you real questions, one after another, like you’re in a casual job interview or a survey study.
Each question gets a little harder, and that’s by design. The goal is to see how your fluency, grammar, and reasoning hold up as the cognitive load increases.
If you haven’t tried it yet, here’s what the task looks like — and how to crush it.
The Setup
You’ll see an instruction screen like this:
You have volunteered to take part in a research study about how people make decisions. You will have a short online interview with a researcher. The researcher will ask you some questions.
From there, you’ll answer four short questions that build in complexity — from personal to analytical, from memory to judgment.
Here’s how the progression works:
What’s Really Being Tested
Don’t get fooled into thinking each question has its own separate score.
They all feed into a single holistic score (1–5), evaluated by the same three big categories:
- Delivery: Fluency, rhythm, and pronunciation
- Language Use: Grammar and vocabulary accuracy
- Topic Development: Clarity, logic, and connection of ideas
The questions simply raise the bar as you move through them. Question 1 checks your ability to speak naturally; Question 4 checks whether that fluency survives when you have to reason abstractly.
Why the Interview Format Matters
The 2026 format feels more natural — and that’s intentional. ETS wants to measure your spoken communication skills in realistic contexts, not your ability to memorize templates.
This new setup captures how you:
- Organize thoughts under pressure
- Maintain fluency across different cognitive loads
- Express personal and global ideas using varied grammar
In short, it’s not just testing if you can speak English — it’s testing if you can think in English.
Strategy Recap
If you want to score high, think of it like climbing a staircase:
- Step 1: Personal Recall → Warm up with a story.
- Step 2: Preference → Express yourself clearly and naturally.
- Step 3: Opinion → Build arguments with examples.
- Step 4: Prediction → Reason about big ideas in fluent, accurate English.
Each step raises the level of abstraction — your job is to stay fluent, coherent, and confident the whole way up.
FAQs
Q: Do I get separate scores for each question?
No. The Interview Task gives you one overall score from 1–5, based on your total performance across all questions.
Q: Can I prepare “scripts” for each question type?
You can prepare frameworks, not scripts. Memorized answers sound robotic and lower your delivery score. Instead, practice flexible outlines you can adapt to any topic.
Q: How long should each response be?
Each question allows around 45 seconds. Focus on finishing your thought naturally — clarity matters more than filling every second.
Q: What’s the best speaking rate?
Between 140–160 words per minute. That’s the sweet spot for fluency in both human and automated scoring systems.
Q: Is grammar more important than fluency?
No. ETS scoring weighs Delivery, Language Use, and Topic Development equally. Natural, fluid delivery can make small grammar slips almost invisible.
Bottom line:
If you can tell stories, express preferences, defend opinions, and reason about the world — all in English — you’ll thrive in the 2026 TOEFL Speaking Interview Task.
Take a free practice test and see how your speech performs under real conditions:
👉 Start here