Speaking Bank — 300 questions, and a safety net under every one of them
Six CEFR levels, five topics each, ten questions per topic: three hundred prompts, from what is your name at A1 to nuanced argumentation at C2. What makes it different from a question list is what sits underneath each question. Tap for help and you get three things: the words you will need, two model answers, and the follow-up questions a teacher would ask next. Across the bank that comes to roughly 1,500 vocabulary items, 900 sample sentences and 900 follow-ups.
The hint is built in three layers on purpose
A learner who stalls needs different help depending on why they stalled. Missing a word is a vocabulary problem: the first layer supplies it. Not knowing what a good answer sounds like is a modelling problem: the second layer shows two, at the right level, so the target is visible rather than imagined. Running out after one sentence is an elaboration problem: the third layer supplies the questions that push the answer further. Handing over all three at once would be a crutch, which is why they open separately and only when asked.
Let them fail for ten seconds first
The single rule that decides whether this tool helps or replaces thinking: nobody opens a hint until they have tried. Retrieval that almost fails is what builds memory; retrieval handed over for free builds nothing. Count to ten in your head before you allow the tap. A student who produces a clumsy answer and then sees the model learns more from the comparison than a student who reads the model and repeats it correctly.
The follow-up questions are for the teacher, not only the student
Nine hundred follow-ups are, in practice, a script for the hardest part of a speaking lesson: knowing what to ask next when an answer runs dry. New teachers reach for "why?" and the conversation dies anyway. The bank supplies the specific second question for each prompt, which is why it works as well for a moderator with a class of twenty as it does for a learner practising alone at a bus stop.
Levels that describe what a speaker can do
The topics shift with the level rather than repeating at greater difficulty. A1 and A2 cover introductions, daily routine, family, shopping and food — the situations a survivor needs. B1 and B2 move to opinions, experiences, health advice and work. C1 and C2 arrive at ethics, media, leadership and nuanced argumentation, where the challenge is no longer vocabulary but position-taking and hedging. A student who works upward through the bank is following the CEFR ladder in the form it was actually written: as things you can do, not grammar you have covered.
Three ways to run it with a group
Interview: pairs, one asks all ten questions in a topic, the other answers, then they swap, and hints are shared between them rather than read alone. Ladder: start the whole class one level below their nominal band and move up a level every few minutes until the room visibly slows, which shows you where they really are. Preparation: assign a topic as homework, with the hints available, and start the next lesson with the same questions and the hints closed.
Using it alone
The bank is one of the few tools here that works with nobody else in the room. A learner picks a level and a topic, answers out loud, then checks the model. The honest version of this is to speak before looking, every time, and to record the answer occasionally — hearing yourself is uncomfortable and it is also the fastest way to notice the error you make constantly and never catch in the moment.
Goes well with
Further reading
CEFR Levels Explained — what A1 to C2 actually mean in a classroom
Error Correction in Speaking — when to interrupt and when to wait