How to Improve Your English Speaking (Alone!)
Have you ever wondered how to improve your speaking, but you find it hard to get a teacher or language partner? In this episode, I explore on method I found recently that works really well for me, so you’ll have no excuse not to practice!
I’m not saying this method can replace interaction with another person, but if you’re looking to get more speaking practice in your week, this might just work for you. Let me know what you think!
Example Prompt for AI
Help me design a webpage for personal use in HTML.
I want to have a place where I can record my voice for language study practice. Each weekday morning, I will record for around 15 minutes, practising English. The audio will be stored in an archive and then ticked off as a streak once I've done it.
I imagine two tabs: Record and Archive. The Record homepage will be quite simple, just a record button and each day a new prompt appears and asks me to talk about a question. So each day it will be new. Here are some examples:
Personal Experiences
Describe your ideal day. What time do you wake up? Where do you go? What makes it enjoyable?
Tell the story of a memorable trip. What happened? Why do you still remember it? What would you do differently now?
Opinions
Is technology making life better or worse?
Should university be free?
Is social media more helpful or harmful?
Explaining Things
Explain how you study languages.
Explain one of your hobbies.
Teach someone how to make your favourite meal.
How to Build Your Own App
1. Get the code: Ask an AI like Claude or ChatGPT for a single HTML file with a prompt, a record button, a streak counter, and a word checklist, saved in the browser with no login needed.
2. Save it: Save the reply as index.html on your computer.
3. Test it: Double-click the file to open it in your browser.
4. Go online for free: Drag the file onto app.netlify.com/drop — no account needed. You will get a free link.
5. Add to your phone: Open the link on your phone and choose "Add to Home Screen".
Note: Everything saves only on that device and browser, so it won't sync across devices.
My Example Code
⭐️ Transcript & Bonus Lesson
Have you ever tried speaking alone to practice English? How did it go?
Share your thoughts in the comments
Hello Michael, I listened to a lot of podcasts, I didn’t find the best one for me, I searched for the best podcasts for listening and I asked a lot of people for podcasts, I tried all of them, most of them were so easy and most of them were tricky to understand, I didn’t benefit from them, After that all my classmate told me to try the level up English podcast, I tried it and it was perfect for me, I start listening to this podcast before one month, and It’s very proper for me, my favorite type of podcasts that you make is AMA podcast, I hope you are going to make another one, I wanted to thank you so much for the podcasts that you record, it’s the best podcast !
Hi Amera. Thank you so much! I’m really happy you were recommended this podcast. I’d love to make a new AMA episode! The main trouble is I don’t have a good way to get questions from the audience anymore since I’m not so active on social media these days. If you have a question, let me know! I’ll add it to a list for the next episode 🙂
Hello Michael, thank you for replying to my comment, I didn’t expect that at all, I understand your situation. You’re very busy and you don’t have enough time, I hope you’ll have some free time soon, yes I have questions, what’s the things that make you feel happy or reduce your stress ? 😀
Michael,
I listen to you since a long time now. One day, I discovered your podcasts and I find them very very interesting and clever. I don’t want to learn English without them now ! I can expanse my vocabulary more easily because you speak personally and the words are in context so. I also love very much your quotations. It’s a very good idea.
I have just listened your last podcast when you speak about IA and its advantages (recording, archive, time, vocabulary), it’s why I am writing to you now because yes, I can understand that this way of working gives some facilities but do we have to yield to such possibilities when IA is a disaster for environment ? I’ m thinking about Data centers which are built everywhere and more and more. I think we need to try to be a colibri, I mean to do our part the most possible, to be sober the most possible. It’s very important to ponder to our practices and to be critical towards a system which spoils the planet and biodiversity.
I wanted to express myself on a very important subject. You can answer me if you want. I hope you won’t have a grudge against this.
Thank you very much.
Carole Ménesse
Hi Carole. Thanks for listening to the podcasts and supporting!
It’s a very interesting topic. Actually it’s really interesting timing. Just 12 hours ago I finished recording an episode about the bad side of AI and when we shouldn’t use it. I’m definitely not a strong supporter.
In my opinion right now, the AI problem is a bit nuanced. When it comes to the environmental impact, there are many things far worse than AI that people don’t like to talk about. For this episode, the impact caused by uploading the video to YouTube would probably be much worse than the 4 messages I sent to AI, but so far no one has asked me to stop uploading 😅
And of course one of the largest causes of emissions on the plant is the agricultural industry. So this is dairy and meat. The worst area for the environment is beef. For the CO₂ caused by an average person’s beef consumption in 1 year, you will have to write over 4 million messages to AI to make it equal. I’ve been vegan for many years so try to avoid causing harm in this way.
So my current belief is that we should always keep this in mind. Don’t use AI mindlessly (as I will speak about in my upcoming episode), but also be aware that AI is not the only evil in this world and consider the other harms we might be causing too.
Hope I expressed my views well here! But I definitely hear your feedback 🙂
Hello Mr Michael, I’m from iraq. I listen to your podcast every day at 5 am before I go to school .this is the best podcast I have ever listened to in my life .keep going, Mr .micheal 🤍