Elsa Speak review: Grammar & vocabulary knowledge isn’t enough to speak English confidently. Many learners hesitate to speak despite knowing grammar and vocabulary well due to pronunciation, stress, and intonation. Elsa Speak is specifically created to solve this problem.
This AI-powered English learning app was mainly developed to improve pronunciation and speaking skills. It listens to your speech and offers feedback based on individual sounds, words, stress, and intonation.
Keep reading to find out whether it is the best language learning app for English Speaking.
What Is ELSA Speak?
English Language Speech Assistant (ELSA) works as a pronunciation teacher for English learners and uses speech recognition to analyze your speech.
ELSA checks your pronunciation & finds words that need improvement when you say a word or sentence. It focuses on vowels, consonants, syllable stress, and intonation. The app also checks your speech with a standard American English pronunciation model to show areas needing improvement.
This is especially useful for learners who understand English and are looking for a way to speak. It, however, doesn’t focus on separate British English pronunciation training. It only offers American English’s pronunciation.
How Does ELSA Speak Work?
Pronunciation assessment is the first step here. The app analyzes your pronunciation after you speak some words and sentences.
ELSA then creates a personalized learning plan based on the areas where you need practice. It prioritizes weaker pronunciation skills instead of pushing every learner to do the same learning exercise.
ELSA then creates short lessons on different pronunciation skills. You can, meanwhile, also select lessons by specific topics or use the Daily Coach for regular practice. Its structure works on any specific problem easily without simply repeating random English sentences.
ELSA Speak Features
Pronunciation Practice
The lessons here focus on individual sounds before moving into words, phrases, and sentences. The app then offers a score and points out weaker sounds after you record yourself.
Suppose learners can work on complex sounds like TH, R, consonant clusters, schwa, diphthongs, and ending sounds. 21 pronunciation skills are usually covered in its lessons effectively.
This detailed feedback is especially useful compared to only listening to yourself or guessing which sound is correct.
Listening Exercises
Listening activities where you understand the difference between similar words are also available here. Easy-to-confuse pairs are present in these exercises. It helps learners to understand the difference between the English sounds effectively.
This is a useful feature because producing sounds is not enough for good speaking. You must also recognize them when other people use them in a regular conversation.
Stress and Intonation Practice
Individual sounds are not enough for English pronunciation. Word stress and sentence intonation also affect the ability to speak naturally.
Lessons where a learner practices syllables should be important, and which words should receive weight within a sentence are also available here. This area, however, is not perfect here. Sentence intonation is usually very tough; even fluent speakers may receive lower scores here.
AI Conversations
AI-based conversation is also available on ELSA through its higher-paid tier.
It allows you to respond to open-ended questions instead of simply repeating prepared sentences. The app also converts your spoken response into text. It can therefore assess whether it fits into the specific situation.
This is why conversation becomes more interactive here because you must create your own response
Daily Coach
It offers learners a regular practice routine. Although ELSA recommends exercises based on your pronunciation needs, users can also set their own goals. It can start from five minutes only. But ELSA recommends around 10 minutes of daily practice. Short sessions can, however, be easier to maintain compared to occasional long sessions,
IPA and Dictionary
Pronunciation information using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is also present here. It helps learners understand the exact word sounds.
Its premium Dictionary feature also offers pronunciation information, IPA spelling, definitions, and recordings. It also shows videos of people speaking words or phrases in regular conversation.
Is ELSA Speak Easy to Use?
ELSA also offers a large amount of material to study.
More than 1,400 lessons cover pronunciation skills and different topics. Learners can therefore study business, education, travel, entertainment, customer service, job interviews, food, etc here.
So much content is also a problem here because the app feels overwhelming at the beginning. IPA symbols are also present in some pronunciation lesson titles.
Daily Coach, on the other hand, offers a smaller set of exercises to work on to solve this problem.
Elsa Speak review: Pros and Cons
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
| Detailed AI feedbacks | Primarily focuses on standard American English |
| Individual English sounds’ focus | Large content library |
| Listening, stress, pronunciation, and dialogue exercises | Strict speech evaluation |
| Personalized practice | |
| AI conversation practice |
The app is especially strong for pronunciation. Extra resources may be needed if you want a complete English course.
ELSA Speak Pricing
Free & paid subscription options are available here.
The paid ELSA Pro is available at $89.99 per year. It is perfect for those looking for only pronunciation coaching. Advanced feedback, progress tracking, and more than 10,000 lessons can be accessed through this plan.
ELSA Premium is also available at $99.99 per year for those looking for English and pronunciation coaching. ELSA AI, certificate courses, Speech Analyzer Web along with all Pro plan features can be accessed through it.
The free version, however, is ideal for testing its pronunciation exercises.
How to Get Better Results With ELSA Speak
Consistency is more important than spending hours inside the app.
It would be best to practice for a short period instead of completing a long session once a week. You should also use headphones & practice in a quieter area to help its Speech recognition feature understand your voice more clearly.
You shouldn’t only focus on achieving a high score. It would be best to pay attention to areas ELSA finds as weak and work on them repeatedly.
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Elsa Speak review: FAQs
Is ELSA Speak good for improving English speaking?
Yes, ELSA is indeed helpful for improving pronunciation, stress, intonation, and speaking clarity. It helps learners practice their weak areas through detailed assessment and AI feedback.
Is ELSA Speak suitable for beginners?
Yes, ELSA Speak is ideal for beginners. But some lessons might be challenging because advanced pronunciation material and IPA symbols are available here.
Does ELSA Speak teach American or British English?
American English pronunciation is the main focus of this app. It is hence more suitable for learning an American English accent.
Is ELSA Speak free?
Yes, a free version is available here where everyone can access its basic features. Advanced learning tools and more lessons can be accessed through the paid plans.
Can ELSA Speak help with pronunciation?
Indeed, it analyzes individual sounds, words, stress, and intonation and provides feedback after you speak to help you improve your pronunciation skills.
Elsa Speak review: Final Verdict
There is no best app for starting to speak English comfortably.
ELSA Speak is indeed helpful for those who know English and want to speak more clearly and work on their accent. Its focus on American English, occasional strict scoring, etc are its biggest limitations.
ELSA Speak is worth trying if pronunciation is part of your struggle. The free version offers a convenient way to experience its feedback before deciding if the paid features fit your specific requirements.
