Working from home is quietly doing something to my speaking ability. I’m an experienced writer and a fluent English speaker. It’s been my working language my entire life. But after years of a lonely solo writing lifestyle, I noticed something uncomfortable. I’d join a video interview or a team call, open my mouth, and feel a half-second delay between thought and word that wasn’t there before. My fluency had just gone a little rusty from disuse.
So I ran an interesting experiment with ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode as a speaking coach. Each ChatGPT prompt was chosen to help me work through the exact gaps I’d noticed, like hesitation, word choice/retrieval, and a few pronunciation slips. My goal was to not let my overthinking derail my speaking fluency.
Pronunciation prompts fix bad language habits
Target a few difficult words at a time
ChatGPT can model any supported language and its vocabulary at any speed, on demand. The real power is in specificity if we want to improve our speaking skills in that language. I suggest isolating three to five tricky sounds per session rather than practicing everything at once, even if you feel confident about the language. By narrowing the focus, you can do more drills per word and hold it in your working memory for longer.
As a non-native speaker, my vocabulary is a mishmash of American and British English. I carry a few sounds from both that creep in under pressure. I asked ChatGPT to model words like “vase” and “entrepreneur” in slow American English, then repeat them back after I tried. It flagged exactly where my mouth was doing a linguistic drift. You can also help ChatGPT along by spelling out the words.
It’s easy to understand these nuances with ChatGPT’s voice mode when it plays them back to you. You can go all quirky with many interesting prompts with ChatGPT’s Live Mode. Try it with a word like “Worcestershire” for fun and see if this prompt works for you. If ChatGPT doesn’t get the word right, just spell it out for the artificial brain. Like I did with “quinoa.”
Speak these five words slowly. After I repeat each one, tell me if my pronunciation was accurate and point out exactly what I got wrong.
Ask for live grammar corrections while speaking
Train and rewire your conversational grammar
Voice mode lets you hold a natural conversation while asking ChatGPT to interrupt and correct errors in real time. This builds the habit of self-monitoring mid-sentence, which is the gap between knowing grammar and actually using it under pressure.
I set it up as a casual chat about my week and told it to stop me every time I misused tense or dropped an article. The corrections mid-sentence felt jarring at first. But ChatGPT’s voice mode is now closer to human speak speech than ever before. It feels surreal. By day four, I was catching the mistakes before I finished the sentence. That internal editor woke back up. If you try this, do pause between your speech, so the chatbot has time to catch the errors and correct you.
Crush hesitation with natural free-talk
Fluency is about keeping yourself from stopping
Free-talking with voice mode mimics the real world. You can ramble, restart, and think out loud. The goal isn’t accuracy here. It’s building the habit of plunging ahead without the brain as a speed breaker. It’s another uncomfortable but vital exercise for never freezing, always finding the next word, even if it isn’t the best one.
I talked about technology trends for ten minutes straight. ChatGPT kept asking follow-up questions, which forced me to keep going even when I lost the thread. My “aahs,” “umms,” and “hmms” dropped noticeably by midweek. More importantly, the half-second delay I’d noticed during calls started to shrink.
Let’s have a ten-minute free conversation about [topic]. Keep asking follow-up questions. Don’t correct me; just keep me talking.
Build confidence with stressful role-playing
Act out a tough meeting or interview with an AI
Voice mode handles role-playing well. You can prep yourself for a job interview with the Live Voice, a difficult client call, or even meeting strangers on a solo trip. The idea is to practice thinking on your feet without real consequences. The discomfort is real enough to be useful. The stakes are low enough to be safe.
I chose a mock bar meeting with a stranger on a solo trip. Here ChatGPT played the (sober) stranger. Hearing myself chat live rather than typing it out exposed gaps in both vocabulary and delivery pace that writing had hidden. It’s a different kind of practice that can take you out of your comfort zone. Plus, you can choose the voice and the personalities that go with it from Settings -> Voice. After that, give it a prompt like this.
Role-play as a stranger who befriends me at a bar in London. Ask me questions, then give me honest feedback on my clarity, confidence, and word choice after each answer.
This can be a hit-and-miss exercise depending on the scenario. I have found it better for conducting learning exercises. For instance, asking ChatGPT to act as a tutor and quiz me on a topic.
Ask for feedback from ChatGPT
Feedback loops are critical for improvement
After each voice session, I asked ChatGPT to score my performance across three areas: clarity, grammar, and fluency (each out of ten). This small habit turned practice into rough yardsticks. Watching even a modest jump from day to day kept me consistent and the exercises interesting.
It also surfaced patterns I would have missed on my own. I consistently stumbled on conditionals. I rushed (or took a lot of time to think) whenever a topic made me unsure. Knowing that gave me something specific to fix the next morning.
Based on our whole conversation today, rate my speaking on clarity, grammar, and fluency out of 10. Give me one specific thing to work on tomorrow.
10 ChatGPT prompts that help you learn a new language faster
I turned ChatGPT into my free language tutor with a few chosen prompts.
Improve your speaking skills one drill at a time
ChatGPT isn’t a perfect speaking partner, but it comes close as a sparring partner for learning new stuff. You can start by picking your weakest area between pronunciation, fluency, or confidence and give it ten minutes every day. And you can do this for strengthening your speaking skills in any language. The gains from these microlearning exercises might just motivate you to try more language learning experiments.
