I've been trying to improve my speaking for about 3 months now and I found out I can chat with ChatGPT in English without it judging me. It's free and I can practice anytime, but I'm not sure if it actually works or if I'm just fooling myself. What do you guys think? Is it effective or should I spend money on a real teacher?
I think it works, but it depends on what you're hoping to get out of it. The problem is that a machine won't correct the systematic mistakes you keep making, you know? Like, it can tell you "that's wrong," but it doesn't understand why you specifically keep falling into that error over and over. Plus, a real conversation has rhythm, interruptions, background noise, people talking fast... you don't get any of that the same way with a chat.
That said, for breaking the ice and getting over the embarrassment of speaking, it's pretty good. If you've been at it for 3 months and you're starting to feel more comfortable, that's already something. Plenty of people screw it up by not practicing at all, so you're doing more than most. The ideal would be to combine this with something else: watch series in English, listen to podcasts, YouTube videos... stuff where you hear real native speakers, not perfect AI responses.
If you can afford a teacher, cool, but it's not essential if you're disciplined. A teacher speeds things up and breaks your bad habits, that's for sure. But if right now you push through with the free stuff, actually practice several times a week, and mix it up (not just chatting), in a couple of months you'll notice a pretty decent change.
The truth is it works pretty well if you use it right, though it depends on your goal! I'd say the problem isn't that ChatGPT doesn't correct mistakes - it does, and quite well - but that a lot of times we practice but don't really pay attention to the corrections, you know, we just gloss over them without actually taking anything in. A teacher has the advantage of forcing you to keep a conversation more natural and pushing you when you get stuck, but if you have the discipline, practicing every day with an AI is infinitely better than doing nothing! The ideal would be to combine both: ChatGPT for confidence and daily practice without pressure, and then a couple of monthly sessions with a real person so they can polish things that only a human picks up on.
The risk I see is that ChatGPT adapts too much to your level and never pushes you out of your comfort zone, so you end up practicing the same things over and over in slightly different ways. A teacher would put you in uncomfortable situations where you actually have to improvise, and that's what really accelerates progress in speaking. ChatGPT is useful for getting more fluent and losing the embarrassment of writing in English, but if you've been at it for months and want a real jump in level, combining them would make more sense.
Practicing with ChatGPT does help, but it ends up being more of a supplement, not a replacement. What happened to me is that after spending some time just chatting with the machine, I started noticing I felt comfortable in the chat but I'd freeze up when I had to actually talk to real people - the AI is way too patient, it's never in a rush, it never interrupts you or changes the subject without warning like a real person does. If what you're after is practicing pronunciation, rhythm, and confidence for an actual conversation, a tutor or someone to practice with live makes all the difference, even if it's just once a week.
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