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Speak & Improve

Principal function(s): Autonomous learningIndividual workSpeakingPronunciationStudentYou SupplyWebsite/other users supply

Speak & Improve helps users improve their speaking and pronunciation skills in English. It works by providing users with speaking prompts or topics to talk about, recording their responses, and providing feedback on pronunciation, fluency, and accuracy. In this way, users engage in a conversation with an AI-powered robot. Speak & Improve is free and does not require having an account for use, although having an account provides access to more functionalities. It is being developed by the University of Cambridge and is currently a research project. Evaluation: Speak & Improve is a useful tool to encourage students to practise their spoken English and help them gain confidence. A suggestion for use would be to ask students to record a conversation with Speak & Improve, and then listen to themselves paying attention to mistakes. Speak & Improve also provides a grade of the students’ CEFR speaking level by analysing their responses, although this is not always accurate.

Cost: Free.

Website: https://speakandimprove.com/

  

Categories

Type Of Interaction

  • Individual work

Skills

  • Speaking
  • Pronunciation

Content

  • Website/other users supply
  • You supply

Usability

Interface User-friendliness/complexity of the tool´s interface

Easy-to-use, straightforward.

Time efficiency Time needed for mastering the „how-to“ of the tool and a production of a task

Medium. The software requires some time to process the responses.

Interface language(s) The number of languages in which the tool is currently available/adaptable to

English.

Respect for privacy Does the tool require registration? Who can see my data? Can I remain anonymous?

Medium. Speak & Improve collects no personal data but it records users' submissions to improve the software. For users who create an account, Speak & Improve collects various types of personal information, including information voluntarily provided. This includes email addresses, passwords, levels of study, mother tongue, and additional personal information, such as biographical details, personal opinions, likes, and dislikes. Speak & Improve also collects technical information, such as IP addresses and browsing data, together with cookies, which can nonetheless be deactivated. It also shares data with third parties for purposes such as providing services, research, analytics, and advertising. Speak & Improve stores data on secure servers, and payment transactions are encrypted using SSL technology. It also acknowledges users’ rights to access their data, request copies, make changes, correct, delete, limit or stop data usage, move data to a third party, or change their consent. Speak & Improve does not explicitly state compliance with the GDPR. See more here.

Saving work for future use Possiblity to save your or others´ work for reuse/reproduction

No.

Tailorability (If so, how?) Possibility of the tool to be used for a range of different activities (e.g. to what extent you can organize a project assignment with a central activity based on this tool)

Interactivity

Engagement

Collaboration

Communication

Technical requirements

Installation required?

Compatibility/ Operating System

Other technical requirements