AI and English
Practise English with AI: what it does well, and what it does not
AI tutors and chatbots give you unlimited speaking practice at any hour. They also miss mistakes, invent the odd rule and never notice if you stop. Here is how to use them well.
The short answer
AI is good for speaking volume: conversations and role-plays every day, at any hour, at your level, without feeling judged. It is weak at catching every mistake, it is sometimes confidently wrong, many tools cannot hear your pronunciation, and nobody notices if you stop. Use AI for practice between lessons, and a teacher or structured course for feedback you can trust and a plan.
Tospeak, one of the tools on this page, shares our owner with LearnEnglish.life. We mark it and list its limits next to the alternatives. How we handle this
What AI does well, and what it does badly
AI tutors and chatbots are best thought of as tireless practice partners, not teachers.
What AI does well
- Volume. You can speak every day for a monthly fee close to the price of one or two lessons.
- Availability. No booking and no time zones: five minutes at 6 a.m. or an hour at midnight.
- No judgement. Repeat the same mistake, ask basic questions, start again. Useful for shy learners.
- Role-play. A hotel check-in, a job interview, a call to the doctor: AI plays the other person as often as you like.
- Adjustable level. Ask for shorter sentences, simpler words or a harder conversation.
- Instant explanations. Ask why something is wrong, or for more examples, mid-conversation.
What AI does badly
- It misses mistakes. AI usually understands you anyway and keeps talking, so errors that do not block meaning go uncorrected unless you ask for corrections.
- It can be wrong. It sometimes "corrects" sentences that were fine, or invents a rule. Tospeak's terms say its tutors "can be wrong", and Busuu warns that its AI's responses may occasionally be incorrect.
- Limited pronunciation feedback. Voice tutors that turn your speech into text first react to the words they recognised, not to your sounds, and may quietly guess the word you meant. Tospeak gives no pronunciation feedback for this reason.
- No accountability. Nobody notices if you skip a week, and nobody plans what you should work on next.
- Too agreeable. Chatbots tend to praise and agree. Ask them to challenge you and point out mistakes.
Privacy, especially for children
AI practice sends your voice, your words and sometimes your camera image to a company and the AI providers it uses. Check four things first:
- Minimum age. Each service sets its own. Praktika says it is for users 13 and over, younger only with parental permission. Tospeak (shares our owner) says children from about 7 can use it with a parent nearby. General chatbots set their own age rules in their terms.
- What is recorded and kept. Is your voice recorded? Are transcripts stored, and can you delete them? Tospeak, for example, says lessons are not recorded as audio or video, the camera image is never sent, and signed-in transcripts are kept until you delete your account.
- Training and memory. Can conversations be used to improve the AI, and can you opt out? Switch off memory features you do not want.
- What you say. In role-plays, use made-up names, addresses and employers. Never share passwords, card numbers or a child's school.
Types of AI tools, with prices
Prices in US dollars on 25 October 2026, from each provider's own pages or the US App Store; they vary by country, store and promotion. This guide is research-based: we have not used these tools ourselves for it.
Voice role-play apps
Speak has an AI tutor, personalised lessons, free-talk role-plays with hints and corrections, and a Pronunciation Coach for English learners. US App Store: Premium $17.99 a month or $83.99 a year, Premium Plus $39.99 a month or $164.99 a year; the 7-day trial needs a payment method. Phone and tablet only; the English course is only for speakers of 15 languages.
Praktika uses AI avatars with different accents, corrects you as you speak and scores pronunciation word by word. US App Store: $9.99 for one month, $49.99 for three months or $119.99 a year, among many promotional prices; a free version has 3 avatars. Phone and tablet only; ages 13 and over.
Course apps and tutor platforms add AI role-play too: Busuu Premium Plus ($16.99 a month on Busuu's US website, which tests different prices), italki Plus ($5.99 a month, role-plays based on your last lesson) and CamblyAI on Cambly.
AI video tutors
You talk to an animated avatar, as on a video call. Duolingo Max adds a Video Call with an AI character, Lily, for English learners on mobile. Duolingo does not publish the Max price on its public pages (Duolingo review).
Tospeak (shares our owner) runs in the browser on a phone or computer, with 19 AI tutors and 23 topics; adults get a recap after lessons with up to three corrections quoting their own sentences. Daily costs $20 a month for up to 60 minutes a day and Unlimited $50, and a 2-minute preview is free every day without an account (Tospeak prices). No pronunciation feedback, course, exam track or app. See the Tospeak profile.
Pronunciation scoring
ELSA Speak gives feedback down to the syllable on sounds, word stress and intonation, in American, British or Australian accents. Free plan: 2 lessons a day plus 3 AI lessons in total. ELSA's US website: Pro (pronunciation only) $89.99 a year, Premium (adds AI role-plays) $99.99 a year. Mobile only, apart from a web Speech Analyzer, and with no placement test. See the ELSA Speak review and pronunciation apps compared.
General chatbots
General assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Copilot can make good practice partners if you tell them exactly what you want, and some have a voice mode. They are not built for learners: they do not track progress, nobody checks their corrections, and limits, prices and privacy settings vary by provider. The prompts below set one up.
| Tool | Type and devices | Price (25 Oct 2026) | Free option | Pronunciation feedback |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speak | Voice role-play app; phone, tablet | $17.99 a month or $83.99 a year | 7-day trial, payment method needed | Yes, Pronunciation Coach |
| Praktika | Avatar tutor app; phone, tablet | $9.99 for one month; $119.99 a year | Free version with 3 avatars | Yes, a score per word |
| ELSA Speak | Pronunciation app; mobile | $89.99 to $99.99 a year | 2 lessons a day | Yes, per syllable |
| Busuu Premium Plus | Course app with AI Conversations; web, mobile | $16.99 a month or $100.99 a year | Limited free tries | Yes, on Premium Plus |
| Duolingo Max | Course app with AI video call; mobile | Not published | Free Duolingo has no Max features | Not stated |
| Tospeak (shares our owner) | AI video tutor; browser | $20 a month (Daily); $50 (Unlimited) | 2 minutes a day, no account | No |
| General chatbot | Assistant; web, mobile | Varies by provider | Varies | Not designed for it |
Speak and Praktika: US App Store prices. ELSA and Busuu: US website prices.
Ready-to-use prompts for a general chatbot
Paste one at the start of a new chat and replace the parts in square brackets. In voice mode, paste the prompt as text first, then switch to voice.
1. Set-up: a conversation partner who corrects you
You are my English conversation partner. My level is about [B1]. Chat with me about everyday topics. Keep each reply under 40 words and end with one question, so I talk more than you. After each of my messages, add a line starting "Correction:" with up to two important mistakes, the corrected sentence and a short reason. If there are no mistakes, write "Correction: none". If you are not sure something is a mistake, say so instead of guessing. Use British English.
2. Role-play: hotel check-in
Let's role-play a hotel check-in. You are the receptionist at a hotel in [London]; I am a guest arriving late with a booking for two nights. Stay in character and say one thing at a time. Add one small problem, such as the room not being ready. After each of my turns, correct my last sentence in brackets if needed, then continue. At the end, list five phrases a guest could use at check-in.
3. Job interview practice
Interview me for a job as a [job title]. Ask one common interview question at a time and wait for my answer. Then give feedback in three short parts: grammar mistakes with corrections, one phrase that would sound more natural, and one thing to add to make my answer stronger. Ask six questions in total and finish with "Do you have any questions for us?"
4. Small talk at work
Teach me small talk for a coffee break at work. First give me eight short, natural phrases for starting and continuing small talk, with an example of each. Then start a conversation with me. If my reply is very short or sounds like a textbook, show me a more natural version before you continue.
5. Retell a story and get feedback
I am going to retell a short story in my own words. Do not interrupt or correct me until I write "finished". Then give me three mistakes with corrections, three phrases that would make my retelling sound more natural, and one question about the story to keep me talking.
6. Opinions and polite disagreement (B2 and above)
I want to practise giving opinions at [B2] level. Choose a light everyday topic, such as remote work or city life. Ask my opinion, then disagree politely and give a reason, so I have to defend my view. Keep your turns under 50 words. After six turns, list the phrases I used for agreeing and disagreeing, and suggest three more.
Two habits help with any prompt: ask the chatbot to write out what it heard before it corrects you, so you can spot speech-recognition errors, and check any surprising rule in a dictionary or grammar guide.
Exercise: check the AI's corrections
AI tools sometimes correct things that were already right. Each learner sentence below is followed by an AI "correction". Decide whether the correction is right or wrong.
- You: "I am living in London since 2019."AI: "I have been living in London since 2019."
- You: "She suggested me to call the hotel."AI: "She suggested that I call the hotel."
- You: "I'm interested in learning English."AI: "Say: I'm interested to learn English."
- You: "Can you borrow me your pen?"AI: "Can you lend me your pen?"
- You: "I have visited Paris last year."AI: "I visited Paris last year."
- You: "Everyone has their own opinion."AI: "Everyone have their own opinion."
- You: "Let's meet on the weekend."AI: "'On the weekend' is wrong. You must say 'at the weekend'."
Show answers
- Right. With "since" and a starting point, use the present perfect: "I have been living" or "I've lived".
- Right. "Suggest" does not take "me to". Say "suggested that I call" or "suggested calling".
- Wrong. Your sentence was already correct. "Interested in learning" is the normal pattern; "interested to learn" usually means curious to find something out, as in "I'd be interested to learn what happened".
- Right. You lend something to someone; you borrow something from someone.
- Right. A finished time such as "last year" needs the past simple.
- Wrong. "Everyone" takes a singular verb: "Everyone has". "Their" is fine.
- Wrong. "At the weekend" is usual in British English and "on the weekend" in American English. Both are correct.
Three of the seven corrections (3, 6 and 7) were wrong. When a correction surprises you, ask "Are you sure? Is my original sentence also correct?" and check it yourself.
Who can use AI alone, and who needs a teacher too
AI alone can be enough if
- you are around B1 or above and mainly need speaking time and confidence
- you already have a teacher or course and want practice between lessons
- you are preparing for a trip or a situation you can role-play
- you are shy and want a warm-up before real conversations
- your budget is very tight: free tiers and a chatbot prompt cost nothing
Add a teacher if
- you are a beginner (A1 to A2) and need explanations, patience and checks that you understood
- the learner is a child: see English for kids
- you have an exam with a speaking test: AI feedback is not scored against official criteria (Praktika says this of its own feedback). See exam preparation
- you keep making the same mistakes or have stopped improving
- people often ask you to repeat yourself, or you need someone to keep you on track
Full comparison with cost per hour: AI tutor vs human teacher. Conversation techniques with or without AI: Speak English with confidence.
A 4-week plan for practising with AI
Fifteen to twenty minutes a day, with any of the tools above.
| Week | Focus | Each day |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Set-up | On day 1, record yourself talking for two minutes. Then use prompt 1 for free conversation about your life and work, and copy corrections into a notebook. |
| 2 | Role-plays | Three situations you really face (prompts 2 to 4). Repeat each one twice. |
| 3 | Check and reuse | Check a few notebook corrections in a dictionary or with a teacher. Redo week 2's role-plays without those mistakes. |
| 4 | Stretch | Opinions and retelling (prompts 5 and 6). Re-record your day 1 talk and compare the two. |
By budget and by level
Free
A general chatbot with the prompts above, ELSA's free plan (2 lessons a day), Praktika's free version (3 avatars) and Tospeak's free 2-minute daily preview.
About $10 to $20 a month
One app: Praktika ($9.99 for a month on the US App Store), Busuu Premium Plus ($16.99), Speak Premium ($17.99) or Tospeak Daily ($20). Annual plans cost less per month: Speak Premium is $83.99 a year, ELSA Premium $99.99.
About $40 to $60 a month
A top tier (Speak Premium Plus $39.99, Tospeak Unlimited $50) or, often better value, one app plus two to four low-cost lessons with a teacher who checks your progress.
A1 to A2
Ask for short sentences, slow speech and translations of new words. AI can overwhelm you at this stage, so pair it with a teacher.
B1 to B2
The sweet spot for AI: role-plays, opinions, storytelling and a mistakes notebook you review every week.
C1 and above
AI agrees too easily. Ask it to challenge your arguments, demand precise vocabulary and flag anything that sounds unnatural.
Not sure of your level? The free level test gives a CEFR estimate of your reading and grammar in about 10 minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Can AI replace an English teacher?
Is ChatGPT good for practising English?
Are AI English tutors safe for children?
Can AI correct my pronunciation?
What is the cheapest way to practise speaking English with AI?
Related guides
Want a mix of AI and lessons that fits your goal and budget? Answer a few questions.
Sources: each provider's website, help centre, terms, privacy policy or US App Store listing, checked on 25 October 2026. The prompts and the exercise were written by our editors.