The TOEFL speaking test is often the section international students worry about most, since it is scored on your live spoken response rather than a written or multiple-choice answer. In January 2026, ETS made major changes to this part of the TOEFL speaking exam, replacing the older task format with a new, more conversational structure. If you learned about TOEFL speaking a few years ago, the section you’ll actually take now looks quite different. Here’s what to expect, how it’s scored, and how to prepare. If you’re still learning about the exam overall, our guide on what the TOEFL test is and how it works is a good starting point.
The Speaking section now uses two task types.
Listen and Repeat plays a short sentence, and you repeat it back as accurately as you can. This task measures your ability to process spoken English and produce speech that is clear and accurate. There are seven of these prompts, and they get progressively harder, starting around eight words and growing to twenty or more by the end.
Take an Interview is a simulated conversation about academic and campus life situations. You answer four questions, each within 45 seconds, about your own experiences, preferences, and opinions. Unlike the older TOEFL speaking topics, which asked for structured academic-style responses, this task is designed to sound like a real conversation, not a prepared speech.
Across both tasks, the section includes 11 items in total, with a base time of about 8 minutes. There is no preparation time before either task type, so responses are spontaneous by design. The TOEFL speaking prompts also do not require any outside subject knowledge. Everything you need is in the question or the audio itself.
Speaking is one of the two sections, along with Writing, scored using ETS’s automated scoring technology, though human scoring is also part of the process for quality control. Like the other sections, Speaking now uses the 1–6 band scale instead of the old 0–30 score. If you want to know what score is considered strong for your target school, our guide to what counts as a good TOEFL score breaks this down by program type.
The scoring approach itself has also changed in focus. The older Speaking section was scored on formal criteria like delivery, language use, and topic development, which rewarded well-structured, almost memorized-sounding responses. The current format instead emphasizes fluency and natural communication over rigid structure. This means a response that sounds like a real, spontaneous answer will generally score better than one that sounds rehearsed or overly formal.
If you’re weighing Speaking against the rest of the TOEFL exam, here is how the four sections currently compare. Still deciding which English proficiency test fits you best? Our comparison of TOEFL vs. IELTS vs. Duolingo can help you weigh your options.
Speaking is the section most students feel underprepared for, since it rewards natural fluency in the moment, not memorized content. If you want focused, one-on-one coaching to build real speaking confidence before test day, ISAL’s TOEFL Test Prep program is designed to help with exactly that.
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Educational Testing Service. "TOEFL iBT Score Scale 1 to 6: CEFR & IELTS Comparison." ETS, 2026, www.ets.org/toefl/institutions/ibt/score-scale-update.html.
"The Enhanced TOEFL Speaking Section (2026): Every Change, Explained." My Speaking Score, 2026, www.myspeakingscore.com/blog/enhanced-toefl-speaking.
"Ten Awesome Tips for the Speaking Section of the 2026 TOEFL." TST Prep, 2026, tstprep.com/articles/toefl/ten-awesome-tips-for-the-speaking-section-of-the-toefl/.
