Learning from mistakes is the most effective way to improve. This is why ELSA always tries to give you feedback on every aspect so that you know what to focus on. When you’re learning with ELSA Speak, you’ll receive a variety of detailed and real-time feedback designed to pinpoint specific areas for improvement in your English speaking. Here’s a breakdown of the main types of feedback you can expect.

1. Pronunciation Accuracy

When practicing speaking with ELSA, do you notice that words are colored after you speak? We believe that color-coded highlighting is ELSA’s most immediate and visual feedback. As you speak a word or sentence, the app will display the text and highlight individual sounds, syllables, or words in different colors:

• Green: Indicates accurate pronunciation.
• Yellow/Orange: Suggests that the sound was somewhat off and needs improvement.
• Red: Signals a significant error in pronunciation.

2. Specific sound analysis

For each sound you mispronounce, ELSA will often show you the correct phonetic symbol and even provide visual guides (like animations of mouth and tongue positions) to help you understand how to form the sound correctly. It can pinpoint errors in specific vowels (e.g., distinguishing between “ship” and “sheep”) and consonants (e.g., “l” vs. “r,” “th” sounds, “s” vs. “sh”). You’ll typically get a percentage score for each word or sentence, indicating how accurately you pronounced it compared to a native speaker.

3. Intonation and Word/Sentence Stress

ELSA analyzes the pitch and rhythm of your speech. It will show you where you should be emphasizing words within a sentence (sentence stress) and on syllables within a word (word stress). If your intonation or stress patterns are incorrect, the app will guide you to adjust them, helping your speech sound more natural and easier to understand.

4. Fluency

ELSA assesses how smoothly and naturally you speak, including your pace and pauses. While it might not always give explicit “fluency scores” in every exercise, it contributes to your overall speaking assessment. In longer speaking exercises or open-ended conversations, it can help you identify areas where your speech might be hesitant or choppy.

Overall Performance Scores and Progress Tracking:

• Overall Score/Percentage: You’ll receive a general score for your performance in lessons, often translated into a percentage or a “Native Speaker Score.”
• Progress Charts: ELSA tracks your progress over time, showing you how your accuracy and fluency are improving in different areas. This can be very motivating.
• Areas for Improvement: Based on your performance, the app will identify your specific weaknesses and suggest personalized lessons and exercises to target those areas.

5. Grammar and Vocabulary (in conversational contexts)

While ELSA’s primary focus is pronunciation, in its AI Conversation features or more open-ended speaking practice, it can also provide feedback on your grammar and vocabulary usage, helping you construct more accurate and diverse sentences. For example, in a role-play or free-speaking scenario, the AI might highlight grammatical errors or suggest more appropriate vocabulary for the context.

6. Comparison to Native Speaker Audio

After you record yourself, ELSA allows you to listen back to your own recording and compare it directly to a native speaker’s pronunciation of the same word or phrase. This side-by-side comparison is invaluable for self-correction.

How ELSA delivers this feedback:

• Visual cues: Color-coded text, animated mouth/tongue diagrams, and waveform displays.
• Audio cues: A “bell” sound for correct pronunciation, a “buzzing” sound for incorrect, and the ability to play back your own and the native speaker’s audio.
• Textual explanations: Brief tips and instructions on how to correct specific errors.
• Gamification: Points, stars, and progression through levels often accompany positive feedback, making the learning process more engaging.

Essentially, ELSA acts like a highly patient, AI-powered pronunciation coach that listens to every sound you make and provides you with precise, actionable feedback, allowing you to refine your spoken English continuously.

Quynh Vo