Speaking Tâche 2 is the counter-intuitive one of the three tasks: the examiner doesn't ask the questions — you do. You get a situation card, play the person in it (a student enrolling in a course, someone renting a flat, a tourist at a travel agency) and have 3 min 30 to get the information you need out of the examiner.
So this task isn't about answering well. It trains three things: reading the situation card, being able to ask, and keeping the conversation going. Every HiTCF feature for Tâche 2 targets one of them. Here they are in the order you'd prepare.
How the task works
- 2 minutes of prep: read the card and jot down your questions.
- 3 min 30 of dialogue: you greet the examiner, say why you're there, then ask your questions one by one; the examiner answers in role.
- Around 10 questions is a safe target.
To see what it looks like first, open the exam walkthrough page and its “Tâche 2 · Role-play” tab: it explains the task and has two complete sample role plays (a language school and a family doctor), with audio and shadowing for every line. For what the examiners score, see the official criteria.
Where to find Tâche 2 topics
Open Tests, switch to Speaking, then pick “Tâche 2 · Role play”.
- Topics are grouped by month. Each card shows how many months the topic has been collected in — the higher the number, the more often that situation comes back.
- To start with the recurring ones, switch the sort to “Most recurrent”.
- Filters lets you narrow by year, type (Classic / Extended) and status (Not started / In Progress / Done); the theme chips above show one kind of situation at a time.
- The search box covers all speaking topics.
- Topics you have practised show your best level.
The row above the list holds three Tâche 2 entries, in the order you'd use them: Read the card → Then ask → Then drill.
Step 1: read the card — “Prompt words”
Situation cards often end with a list in brackets of what to ask about, e.g. (tarifs, horaires, conditions d'inscription…). If you don't know those words, your questions will have gaps.
Under “Read the card”, open Prompt words. The words that keep coming up on situation cards are grouped by theme; you can flip through each group, and “How to ask this” takes you straight to matching questions.
Step 2: learn to ask — “Question Sample Library”
Under “Then ask”, open the Question Sample Library.
At the top is the 5-step framework (speaking order in exam): greeting → explain why you're asking → lead-in question (optional) → questions (main part) → thanks and closing. The main part groups common questions into 7 categories; pick one or two per category and you have 10–12 questions.
- Filter by structure: Est-ce que, inversion, question word + est-ce que, question word + inversion. Mixing them on the day helps your grammar score.
- Every line has reference audio, shadowing with a score, write-from-memory and a sentence breakdown.
- At the end there's a universal question that shows off your grammar, and 5 fallback phrases for reacting after the examiner answers.
Step 3: role-play with the AI examiner
Click a topic in Tests and you get two choices: Start Practice and Start Exam. Practice first.
What's on the practice page
On the left is the prompt:
- “The examiner's exact words”: how the examiner introduces the task on the day.
- The full situation card: toggle a translation into your interface language, click any word for its word card, open the sentence-by-sentence analysis, and highlight to take notes.
In the middle are two tabs: Practice (the role play) and Sample (your own question list). Next to them is a counter of questions asked (target 10; it turns green when you reach it) and the Answer guide with prep hints for the task.
The drawer on the right holds Vocab, Notes, Sentences (saved from your conversations) and Result (your past attempts).
Running a role play
- Under Practice, click Start Chat. Nothing is used up and the microphone stays off until you click.
- You get 2 minutes of prep. Click Start Conversation Early when you're ready; it also starts by itself when prep ends.
- You speak first. A card says “Your turn to open”: greet, explain why you're there, then ask your questions one by one.
- Tap the microphone to speak and tap again to send. You see a live transcript while you talk; the examiner's reply is read aloud, with optional subtitles. If you can't speak out loud, you can type a turn instead.
- Practice never cuts you off: past 3 min 30 the clock keeps counting as “+mm:ss”. When you're done, click End & get score.
Your score
When it ends, the Result tab shows:
- a total out of 20, an estimated CEFR level and NCLC;
- scores and comments for Pronunciation, Fluency, Grammar, Vocabulary, Task Completion and Sociolinguistic Adequacy;
- an overall comment, grammar corrections and vocabulary suggestions.
You can open the full conversation results page to replay the whole exchange, or click Try Again for another round.
Step 4: drill your question list — “Sample”
The Sample tab in the middle of the practice page is where you build “the questions I'll ask for this topic”. About 10 is a good size.
- Add from bank: every topic comes with a reference set of questions, sorted into Opening, Questions, Universal and Closing — tick the ones you want.
- Or write your own: type it in your own language and click Translate & add, or write it in French and click Polish & add to have it smoothed out.
- Every line can play reference audio, record a shadowing take with a score, be written from memory or broken down; you can reorder the list and copy it all at once.
Get the questions fluent here first, then go back to Practice for the role play.
Step 5: one timed run
Click the same topic in Tests and choose Start Exam to get exam timing:
- Read the examiner's words and the situation card, then click Start Preparation.
- 2 minutes of prep, with scratch paper on the page for your questions.
- 3 min 30 of dialogue with the card pinned on screen. It ends automatically when time is up, or you can click “Finish Exam” early.
You then land on the results page with the same scoring as Practice, plus a replay of the conversation and a re-evaluation option.
Drill by situation — “Practise by situation”
There are a lot of Tâche 2 topics, but many are the same situation in different words (“asking a travel agency about a holiday” alone has a dozen wordings). Practise by situation groups them, so practising one situation once covers all its wordings.
- The list is sorted by Most asked by default. Each situation shows how many wordings it has and how many you've practised. Expand it to see every wording, and click “Practise” to open the practice page.
- For situations you're confident about, click I've got this situation. You can then filter the list by Not practised / Practised / Got it and keep only what's left.
- Click Practise a round: 5 different situations. For each one, read the prompt, click “Start speaking”, say the questions you'd ask the examiner (5–6), click “Done speaking”, then compare with the Reference questions (with audio and translation) to spot the kinds of questions you missed.
There's no AI examiner and no grade here — it trains one thing: seeing a card and asking straight away.
The full mock exam
To sit Tâche 1, 2 and 3 back to back, go to Mock Exams in Tests and click Random Mock Exam. The speaking part is the full 12-minute exam sequence; Tâche 2 again has 2 minutes of prep and 3 min 30 of dialogue.
Prefer another AI? That works too
On the practice page, the prompt header has a Copy for AI practice button. It copies role-play instructions together with the situation card; paste them into the AI chat tool you use and it will play the examiner.
Free vs membership
- Free: this month's Tâche 2 topics — read the prompt, see the translation, open word cards, take notes, copy for AI. Part of each category in Prompt words and the Question Sample Library. The sample role plays on the walkthrough page.
- Membership: all earlier months, scored role plays with the AI examiner, the timed single exam, translation / reference audio / shadowing scores in the Sample tab, Practise by situation, and the mock exam.
- During a free trial: you can role-play with the AI examiner, with a daily limit, and use Practise by situation.
A suggested routine
- Listen to the sample role plays on the exam walkthrough page to get a feel for a Tâche 2.
- Memorise the 5-step framework and one or two questions per category from the Question Sample Library.
- Work through the most-asked situations in Practise by situation until you can ask as soon as you see a card.
- Pick a few topics for role plays with the AI examiner and see which criterion is weakest.
- Before the exam, do a few runs with Start Exam at exam timing.
Open the Tâche 2 topics and start with the most recurrent one.