using AI for speaking practice
Most my clients only have one session per week with me. In that session they work hard and they make progress. However, to make the most progress possible in our time working together, you need to be speaking English outside the session as well. Just like learning a musical instrument, or playing a sport, the more practice you put in, the better you get. While some of your English practice can be done in silence e.g. learning vocab or doing grammar exercises, the best thing for bulding your fluency is speaking practice.
AI has opened up a massive opportunity. You have a conversation partner who is there whenever you have time (in the car, while you are cooking, during your coffee break) is an expert on every topic imaginable, is happy to base the conversation around your needs and can grade their language to the level you require.
Watch the below video to see just how good AI tools can be at speaking. In the video, I talk about the weather as that was what everyone was talking about the week I recorded it! However, you can choose whichever theme is the most useful to you-general small talk or more targetted work topics such as annual performance reviews, streamlining processes, agile working etc. etc.
AI has opened up a massive opportunity. You have a conversation partner who is there whenever you have time (in the car, while you are cooking, during your coffee break) is an expert on every topic imaginable, is happy to base the conversation around your needs and can grade their language to the level you require.
Watch the below video to see just how good AI tools can be at speaking. In the video, I talk about the weather as that was what everyone was talking about the week I recorded it! However, you can choose whichever theme is the most useful to you-general small talk or more targetted work topics such as annual performance reviews, streamlining processes, agile working etc. etc.
In the video I'm using ChatGPT. I started using ChatGPT before the data protection scandal. Since then I've tried out various different AI tools in the hope of leaving ChatGPT but have yet to find another AI tool where the speaking function is as good. FYI previously, you only had access to the speaking function with a paid account but now it is available on the free account.
Chatting to AI is all about improving your fluency so stick to having a conversation. Please DON'T turn it into a lesson by asking for corrections and feedback (Plus the technology isn't good enough yet to give you reliable feedback anyway)
You get the best conversations when you give the AI bot a persona and a specific situation e.g. 'Dave from the accounts department and small talk by the coffee machine' or 'a client from a toy company and a call to update them on the marketing plan to support the launch of their new boardgame'. The more details you give, the more specialised the conversation can be.
If you are finding the English hard to understand, don't forget you can ask it to slow down or use simpler words, just like I do in the video. You can also ask it explain a word. Or you can swap to speaking in your native language to ask for help then come back to English again.
Here you can find five ideas of how you can use AI for conversation practice. However, this is only a starting point. The possibilities are endless.
Chatting to AI is all about improving your fluency so stick to having a conversation. Please DON'T turn it into a lesson by asking for corrections and feedback (Plus the technology isn't good enough yet to give you reliable feedback anyway)
You get the best conversations when you give the AI bot a persona and a specific situation e.g. 'Dave from the accounts department and small talk by the coffee machine' or 'a client from a toy company and a call to update them on the marketing plan to support the launch of their new boardgame'. The more details you give, the more specialised the conversation can be.
If you are finding the English hard to understand, don't forget you can ask it to slow down or use simpler words, just like I do in the video. You can also ask it explain a word. Or you can swap to speaking in your native language to ask for help then come back to English again.
Here you can find five ideas of how you can use AI for conversation practice. However, this is only a starting point. The possibilities are endless.