This article is the result of two years of systematic use of impromptu speeches in the training of students attending the interpreting courses of Dutch into Italian at the SSLMIT of Trieste. It has been observed that some of the characteristics of speeches delivered without a previously written text – register variations and looser text structure in particular – appear to pose difficulties to Italian students interpreting from Dutch into their native language. After comparing impromptu speech with other speech production modes, the article argues that impromptu speeches, presented in a variety of interlinguistic communication settings, are a good pedagogical tool in the training of interpreting students.