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Listening Part 5 · Free · 2026 CELPIP format

CELPIP Listening Discussion, explained with answers

Part 5 is three people who do not agree, and the questions turn on who sided with whom. Play two short clips with no timer, decide your answers, then reveal the transcript and the reasoning behind every option. Keep three voices, three positions and three views apart, and the part gives itself up.

Play the two clips How Part 5 works

8 questions on the real test 3 speakers who disagree No timer, nothing scored

The 6 listening parts 38 questions in total on the real test

1 Problem Solving8 questions 2 Daily Life5 questions 3 Information6 questions 4 News Item5 questions 5 Discussion8 questions 6 Viewpoints6 questions

How this part works

What CELPIP Listening Part 5 actually asks of you

The Discussion is the part where the number of speakers jumps to three and, for the first time, they genuinely disagree. Three neighbours, three coworkers, three classmates argue their way toward a decision, and the clip is the sound of that argument being had: someone proposes, someone objects, someone tries to hold the middle. Nobody is simply relaying facts. Everybody has a position, and the positions do not line up.

On the real 2026 test this is the only part shown as a video, and the picture is there for one reason: to introduce the three speakers by where they sit, so you can label them left, centre and right as they are named. No question ever depends on what someone is wearing or what is on the table. The strategy page is explicit that visual detail unrelated to the talk is never tested, which is exactly why we can teach this part honestly as audio with the speakers labelled by position.

The clip runs a minute and a half to two minutes and carries eight questions, the joint largest block on the test. Almost all of them are about the shape of the disagreement rather than a lone fact: which two ended up agreeing, whose objection carried, what the group finally settled and what it could not. A candidate who tracks only what was said, and not who said it, has heard the words and missed the point.

The two discussions below feature the same three members of a Guelph neighbourhood association across two meetings, so you meet Bianca, Rupert and Odette twice and learn to hear where each of them tends to stand. Get comfortable holding three views at once here, then take the full eight-question version under the clock.

Official format

CELPIP Listening Part 5 format at a glance

How the Discussion is built on the timed 2026 test, and why the practice version is audio.

Official name: Listening Part 5: Listening to a Discussion
Questions: 8, out of the 38 scored questions in the listening section
Time: About 9 minutes, the fifth of the six listening parts
Speakers: Three, named and introduced by position, who sometimes disagree
Medium: A video on the real test, the only one in the section. This course uses audio with the speakers labelled left, centre and right.
Questions are: Read, not spoken. Eight sentence completions on one screen, answered in any order
Tone: Relatively informal, carrying facts, opinions and emotions
Reported as: Part of your listening total, one CLB 1 to 12 band across all six parts

Strategy

How to listen to a three-way Discussion

Before the clip even starts, sketch three columns, one per speaker, and label them by position, left, centre and right, as each person is introduced. As they talk, note each person's stance and how firmly they hold it, because the questions often turn on who agreed with whom rather than on any single fact.

Draw the three columns first: Left, centre, right, one heading each. When Bianca, Rupert and Odette are named, put a name on each column and you never again have to ask which voice just spoke. The whole part is built to reward that scaffolding.
Log the stance, not just the words: Under each name write for, against or unsure, and a word for why. Rupert against, doing it alone. When a question asks whose objection was what, your columns answer it instead of your memory.
Track where two of them line up: Disagreements shift. Two people may agree on keeping the rink but split on who runs it. Note the agreements as they form and dissolve, because the general question is usually about exactly that pattern, not the topic.
Hear the strength of a view: A firm "no" and a reluctant "well, maybe" are different data. Attitude is carried by tone, and the three voices are cast to be distinct so you can tell a hard line from a wobble. Note how strongly, not only which way.
Catch what the group could not settle: These discussions rarely tie everything up. They keep the rink going but cannot agree who floods it; they take the grant but split on the project. The unresolved thread is a favourite question, so mark the loose end, not just the decision.

The columns are not a nicety, they are the part. Eight questions about three shifting positions is more than working memory can hold, and the candidates who skip the note-taking are the ones who, by question six, can no longer say whether it was Rupert or Odette who objected to the steps. The scaffolding is what turns an impossible memory task into a lookup.

The agreement pattern is where Part 5 differs most from every earlier part. Elsewhere the question wants a fact; here it usually wants a relationship between people. Who sided with whom, whose objection won, what everyone accepted and what stayed open. If your notes capture the shape of the argument, those questions stop being about recall and start being about reading your own three columns.

Two worked clips

Play a Discussion, then see every answer

Each clip opens in the player, as audio with the three speakers labelled left, centre and right. Listen once or as often as you like, complete the sentences shown as text, then reveal the transcript and a reason for all four options. Nothing here is timed and nothing is scored.

Part 5 · Clip 13 questions

Who floods the rink this winter

Three volunteers from a Guelph neighbourhood association, Bianca, Rupert and Odette, meet about the community outdoor skating rink they look after. They agree it should carry on but split on who should run it, and one question rests on why Odette wants the plan written down.

• Three named speakers, left, centre and right
• Tests the group's agreement, an objection, and an inference
• Notice what they settle and what they leave open

Play this clip and reveal the answers

Part 5 · Clip 23 questions

Spending the neighbourhood grant

The same three association members are deciding how to spend a small community grant before the deadline. The disagreement is over which project to fund, Rupert pushing to fix the river-path steps, and Odette's objection is not that the steps are fine but what fixing them commits the group to.

• The same three neighbours, a second meeting
• Tests what they cannot agree on, Rupert's plan, and Odette's worry
• Separate the objection from the reason behind it

Play this clip and reveal the answers

Course vs the mock test

How this differs from the timed listening test

On the real 2026 test Part 5 plays as a video, once, without a pause, and the eight sentence completions then sit on one screen under a single block of time. The video's only job is to show you the three speakers and where they sit, so you can label them by position as they are introduced, and the strategy page promises that nothing you see, only what you hear, is ever tested.

Because building genuine three-person video for a study tool is neither affordable nor honest to fake, this course plays the discussion as audio with the three speakers labelled left, centre and right, and casts three clearly different voices so attitude still lands through intonation. You keep the exact skill the part scores, labelling three speakers by position and tracking their views, and you gain the ability to replay while you learn and to read the questions as text.

The reveal is where the teaching happens: the full transcript plus a written reason for every option, including which speaker a wrong answer quietly assigns a view to that they never held. The voices are North American, since no Canadian text-to-speech voice is available to us, while the discussions are Canadian, set in a Guelph neighbourhood association. For the real conditions, the timed listening tests run all six parts under the clock.

: This practice course; Timed listening test
Medium: Audio, speakers labelled by position; Video, speakers shown by position
Replay: As many times as you like; Plays once, no pause
What you get back: Transcript and a reason per option; A points total and a CLB band
Timer: None, ever; About 9 minutes for the part

Common mistakes

Common mistakes in Listening Part 5

The specific ways able listeners still lose marks when three people disagree.

Not setting up the three columns

Eight questions about three shifting views will not survive in your head. Skip the scaffolding and by the later questions you cannot say who objected to what, which is the exact thing being asked.

Attributing a view to the wrong speaker

A distractor takes a real opinion and pins it to a different person. If you tracked what was said but not who said it, an option that gives Rupert's objection to Bianca looks perfectly true.

Missing what stayed unresolved

The group keeps the rink but cannot agree who floods it. A candidate who hears only the agreement, and not the open question hanging off it, walks into the option that says everything was settled.

Confusing the objection with its reason

Odette is not against fixing the steps because they work; she worries about who maintains them afterward. The option that names the wrong reason is written for the listener who caught the objection but not its cause.

Flattening the strength of a view

A firm refusal and a soft maybe are different answers. Treat every opinion as equally held and you miss the questions that hinge on who felt strongly and who was only half persuaded.

Waiting for a visual you will not get

On the real test the video only shows where people sit; nothing you see is tested. Straining for a picture cue instead of tracking the talk wastes attention the eight questions actually need.

Tips

Listening tips for the Discussion part

Name the columns as they are introduced

You get paper on test day. Write left, centre and right, then drop each name in as the speaker is presented. From then on every line has a home, and you can note stances instead of scrambling to remember whose turn it was.

Use arrows for who agrees with whom

When two speakers line up, draw a line between their columns; when one breaks away, cross it out. A quick map of shifting alliances answers the general questions faster than any sentence you could write.

Mark the loose end

Put a small circle beside whatever the group could not settle: who floods the rink, which project wins. These discussions rarely resolve cleanly, and the unfinished thread is a reliable question.

Practise on a real three-way chat

A roundtable podcast or a panel with three voices is the closest everyday match. Try to say, a minute in, who is for the idea, who is against, and who is undecided. That is the whole skill Part 5 measures.

Read the explanation, not just the key

When you reveal a discussion, the teaching is in the notes that show how each wrong option moved a view to the wrong speaker or turned an open question into a settled one. Reading that is how you learn to hold three positions at once instead of blurring them into a single argument.

Questions

Listening Discussion FAQs

What is CELPIP Listening Part 5, the Discussion?

Part 5 is three people talking something through, and they do not all see it the same way. It runs about a minute and a half to two minutes and carries eight questions. The skill is tracking who holds which view and where the three agree or clash, because most questions turn on the pattern of agreement rather than on any single fact.

How many questions are in CELPIP Listening Part 5?

Eight, the joint largest block in the listening section. They are sentence completions that you read on one screen and answer in any order within a single block of time. This course gives you two worked discussions with the same three neighbours, each with its questions and a written reason for every option.

Is Part 5 a video on the real test?

Yes. On the real 2026 test Part 5 is the only part shown as a video, with the three speakers introduced by where they sit on screen. No question depends on a visual detail like clothing; the picture exists only to label the speakers by position. In this practice course the clip plays as audio with the three speakers labelled left, centre and right, which teaches the same note-taking skill honestly.

How do I keep three speakers straight?

Set up three columns before the clip starts, one per speaker, and label them by position as each person is introduced. As they talk, note each person's stance and how firmly they hold it. The questions often ask who agreed with whom or who objected, so a column of positions answers them far better than a single running memory.

Does this Discussion practice score my answers?

No. There is no timer and no scoring on this page. You listen, complete the sentences in your head, then reveal the transcript and the reasoning for all four options, including which speaker each wrong one misattributes a view to. Marks and a CLB band come only from the timed listening tests.

Are the discussions Canadian, with Canadian voices?

The discussions are Canadian, both featuring a Guelph neighbourhood association arguing over their community outdoor rink and a small grant. The three voices are North American, because no Canadian text-to-speech voice is available to us, and three distinct voices are cast so attitude lands through intonation. Everything follows the 2026 CELPIP format.

Keep going

Where to go next

Part 6 is the last and hardest: one speaker, a prepared formal talk, and a stance you often have to infer. Or step back to the earlier parts, or take the whole section under the real clock.

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Start with the rink meeting

Play one discussion, track the three views with no clock running, then reveal the transcript and the reason behind every option. Both clips are free.

Play the first clip Or learn Part 6