Use ChatGPT to help you practice speaking

Hello everyone, it's Yutong here. Do you always fail to find your mistakes when practicing English speaking or struggle with not having the right person to practice with in one-on-one conversations? Today I'm going to use ChatGPT, a very popular AI chat tool, to give you a new way of thinking. If you're interested in AI and speaking practice, read on!

You may question, isn't ChatGPT only text chat? How do you achieve voice interaction? Actually, all you need to do is search for the extension "Voice Control for ChatGPT" in Google and install it in your browser! If you are not sure how to install the plugin, the following screenshot may help you.

Install the Extension

Here is the link for installing the extension (Please copy and paste in your browser): 

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/voice-control-for-openai/baahncfnjojaofhdmdfkpeadigoemkif

After searching and entering the extension home page, click the blue button "Add to Chrome":

To check if it was added successfully, you can click the extension button at the top of the page and see if "Voice Control for ChatGPT" is in your extension list:

Go to ChatGPT and Start Your Speaking Practice

After that, go to ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com) and change your preferences by clicking on the settings button in the bottom right corner. You can change the target language you are learning (Here you can see that we can use it to practice other languages as well!):

You can also modify other settings to make the input and responses more responsive to your needs:

Once it's all set up, you can click the microphone next to the input box to start a spoken conversation with ChatGPT! For example, you can ask it: “Can you help me practice for the English speaking test by acting as an IELTS examiner and asking me the questions one by one?” Or，”Can you help me modify my answer more natively?” ChatGPT will answer you in both text and voice together, and help you revise your speaking questions. If you want to continue to have it ask you questions, you can say: “Thank you so much. Please ask me the next question.”

ChatGPT is a very powerful AI language tool and you can create as many ways to use it as you like within the ethical limits. It's important to note that no tool can be the only shortcut to learning a language. What matters most is more thinking and practicing!