The Best English Speaking Apps in 2023
Combined with other English learning methods, these apps can help you learn how to speak English fluently.
I found 13 of the most unique, creative English speaking apps out there. They’ll be the talkative digital friends that you need to improve your accent and speak more naturally.
So grab your favorite device and let’s get talking!
Contents
- 1. Best for Targeted Practice: ELSA
- 2. Best for Immersive Learning: FluentU
- 3. Best for Scripted Conversations: SpeakingPal
- 4. Best for Connecting with Native Speakers: HelloTalk
- 5. Best for Private Video Lessons: Cambly
- 6. Best for Variety of Content: VOA Learning English
- 7. Best for Quizzed Learning: TalkEnglish Speaking Practice
- 8. Best for Pronunciation Reference: Forvo
- 9. Best for Real-time Practice: iTranslate Converse
- 10. Best for Self-Learning: TalkEnglish
- 11. Best for Live Speaking Opportunities: English Talk
- 12. Best for Perfecting Your Pronunciation: Accent Training
- 13. Best for Building Your Foundations: Speak English Fluently
- How Using Apps Benefits English Learners
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
1. Best for Targeted Practice: ELSA
Cost: Free; Pro subscription starting at $74.99 per year
Before you start speaking English, you have to focus on your pronunciation.
ELSA—which stands for English Language Speech Assistant—is an interactive speaking app that helps you speak English better by fixing the small errors in your pronunciation.
When you begin learning, ELSA asks what your native language is. Then, it gives you a few common phrases and words and listens to your pronunciation of them.
Once that’s done, ELSA starts teaching the specific syllables and sounds that you’re having trouble with.
ELSA’s program was designed by expert speech and communication coaches. The app is free to download and you can watch it in action in the video below.
2. Best for Immersive Learning: FluentU
Cost: Monthly subscription; free trial available
FluentU teaches English by immersing you in videos that demonstrate how native speakers use the language in their own media. These clips include music videos, news clips and movie trailers.
This authentic content teaches you English the way it’s spoken by native speakers, rather than the stiff, formal English you’d learn from traditional sources. And unlike other sources of English videos, FluentU has language learning tools that make it easier to understand words and phrases you haven’t heard before.
The videos on FluentU all have interactive subtitles that let you click words for a translation, example sentences and a pronunciation guide. This way, you’ll understand more of what you hear. The videos will not only teach you how native English sounds but how phrases are used in different contexts.
FluentU also has personalized quizzes that let you practice what you learn from the videos. In the app version, the quizzes have speaking questions that let you practice your English pronunciation with your device’s microphone. Simply speak your answer into your device and FluentU’s speech recognition program will let you know if your pronunciation is accurate.
The video content on FluentU comes from all over the English-speaking world, so you can use it to learn how to speak with a variety of dialects and accents. The videos can be searched by topic, format and difficulty level, letting you find videos featuring the specific words and subjects you want to learn about.
See a roundup of FluentU user reviews here.
3. Best for Scripted Conversations: SpeakingPal
Cost: Free; Premium version starts at $8.99 for one month
If you’re a little shy about wanting to practice English with a stranger, then SpeakingPal can help you out.
The app lets you have scripted conversations with a video character. Speech recognition technology is great for learning because it gives you instant feedback. SpeakingPal will listen to your voice and let you know right away how good your pronunciation is.
There are also translations for the scripts so that you can learn vocabulary and phrases at the same time.
There are also some extras, like quizzes that test your understanding and short video lessons. SpeakingPal also keeps track of your progress, so you can easily tell how much you’ve improved and how far you can keep going.
Even if you’re not speaking to a real person, the characters are quite convincing!
4. Best for Connecting with Native Speakers: HelloTalk
Cost: Free; VIP membership starts at $8.99 monthly
If you don’t have a language partner around, then HelloTalk can get you one for free!
A language exchange is when you teach someone your native language, and they teach you theirs (English). HelloTalk is one of the most popular language exchange apps with over 30 million users from all over the world.
You’ll definitely find a few great speaking partners who are just like you and want to improve their language skills. You can choose who to chat with based on where they’re from and what languages they can speak.
Once you find a partner, you can send text, audio or video messages, or call and video chat for live speaking practice. To help you out, the app has a grammar correction option that can catch mistakes in your message before you send it.
You can read more about HelloTalk in our full review.
5. Best for Private Video Lessons: Cambly
Cost: $85 per month
If you want to get more private English speaking practice, then you might enjoy Cambly. This app connects you with a native English tutor who will be happy to chat with you.
You can choose your English teacher based on when they’re available and what their English specialties are. Once you plan a lesson, you can talk directly with your tutor for up to an hour at a scheduled time. He or she will help you with what you want to practice, whether that’s grammar or pronunciation, or just speaking practice to build confidence.
Besides private video lessons, Cambly also has guided courses that focus on specific English skills, such as business English or academic English.
6. Best for Variety of Content: VOA Learning English
Cost: Free, with in-app purchases available
Although this app is designed for English listening practice, it is great for practicing natural English speech, too.
VOA Learning English provides stories, lessons and news in English for non-native speakers. The app uses easy vocabulary, and the speakers talk slowly so you can understand everything.
For speaking practice, there are two important features: you can adjust the speed of the audio and easily repeat difficult sections. Use those to listen carefully and imitate what you are hearing. Try to get your pronunciation to match the audio.
The app covers business, news, history, the environment and much more. You will be learning English while becoming informed about what is happening in the U.S.
7. Best for Quizzed Learning: TalkEnglish Speaking Practice 
Cost: Free, with in-app purchases available
If you prefer to be quizzed, this TalkEnglish app has hundreds of interactive English speaking practice exercises.
It has listening exercises to improve your comprehension and a recording tool to help you see your progress and improvement. You can record yourself having a conversation while you read the dialogue.
Your English conversation skills will be better than ever! You can choose from different categories and once you learn the lesson, you can apply it in a quiz afterward. Quizzes are great because they can make sure you actually understood what you learned.
8. Best for Pronunciation Reference: Forvo
Cost: $2.99
Forvo lets you listen to all kinds of words and phrases in over a hundred languages, with a unique twist: all the pronunciations are provided by real native speakers around the world. You can even upload your own pronunciation of a word in your native language!
To use it for English learning, all you have to do is look up an English word or phrase and you’ll be able to play audio clips of English speakers saying it. The pronunciations are rated by other users, so you can figure out which of the audio clips are the most reliable.
This app is perfect for hearing the pronunciation of a word you’re not sure how to say. Play the audio then repeat it to match the native speaker’s pronunciation.
One of the best parts about Forvo is that you can hear the same English word being spoken by different people. You can listen to male and female voices or hear the unique accents of English speakers from America, Europe and elsewhere. It’s definitely interesting to see the little differences in pronunciation and tone!
9. Best for Real-time Practice: iTranslate Converse
Cost: Free; Pro version starting at $4.99
Okay, okay. So, iTranslate Converse isn’t really an English learning app. But it does give you a chance to hear and repeat correct English pronunciations of any words or phrases you want.
How? iTranslate Converse turns your iPhone into a speech translation device. Just hold the screen while speaking and then let go to hear the translation.
“But how will I learn? iTranslate Converse will do all the English speaking for me!”
Have you ever tried to speak in English on your own, but you weren’t sure you were doing it right because there was no one to correct your mistakes?
This app can help.
You can prevent plenty of embarrassing and frustrating moments with Converse. Whenever you’re not sure how to pronounce something, you can just translate, listen and then imitate iTranslate Converse’s pronunciation.
Converse will help you become more comfortable speaking English. Practicing on your own will give you the confidence you need to speak with natives and sound more natural!
10. Best for Self-Learning: TalkEnglish
Cost: Free; $1.99 and up to remove ads; $4.99 for offline mode
This app is a great way to see and practice English conversation. It comes with dialogues on many topics, like fishing, food, kids, friends and more.
Each lesson lets you read and listen to a conversation. You then answer some multiple-choice questions about what you just read. Most importantly, you get to practice speaking by playing the part of one of the characters in the dialogue. This is a great way to practice having a conversation when you don’t have a partner!
You can also record your conversation practice so you can listen to it and compare your speaking with the app’s version.
11. Best for Live Speaking Opportunities: English Talk
Cost: Free, with in-app purchases starting from $2.19
English Talk takes a hands-on approach to English language learning. You actually speak to other real people in live audio chatrooms to improve your conversation skills.
You can easily find a random speaking partner and practice talking. Practice with this app, and you’ll find that the listening and speaking part of the TOEFL exam will be a breeze!
For privacy, the app only has audio chat (no video).
If you are worried about the conversation not being advanced enough, there is a live English debate and discussion section that you can participate in. There is also a vocabulary and grammar course where you can apply your knowledge.
You may even get the best of both worlds—English speaking practice and a new friend!
12. Best for Perfecting Your Pronunciation: Accent Training
Cost: Free; $2.99 for ad-free version
This app lets you practice your American accent and pronunciation with short scripts. Different scripts talk about different everyday topics.
For each script, you can listen to a native speaker read out the text, and follow every word the speaker says.
Once you hear how everything sounds, you can record yourself saying the same script, and then compare your version to the original. It’s a quick way to check your pronunciation and show you what your speaking strengths and weaknesses are.
The app also provides the scripts in a “reduced speech” format, which is a shorter version that uses shortened English, usually with contractions (“it is” → “it’s”).
There are also a few exercises to help you practice specific English sounds, including some tricky ones that can be hard to say!
13. Best for Building Your Foundations: Speak English Fluently
Cost: Free
This app lets you work on your beginner and intermediate English conversation skills. It offers many quick sample dialogues that you can expect to hear or have in everyday life.
Everything is narrated by American English speakers, and the scripts sound natural and casual. Besides the dialogues, you also get a list of common sentences and vocabulary that you’ll probably use frequently.
To practice your speaking, you can record your voice as you read the transcripts or sentences, and the app will compare your version to the original.
To help you become more confident in your English, the app also has mini-lessons about idioms, common phrasal verbs and irregular verbs. These are all things that language learners can find confusing, so these extra lessons are great additions!
How Using Apps Benefits English Learners
I get it, these English speaking apps are great. But why should I use mobile apps when there are so many other learning methods out there?
- Freedom to learn anywhere you are, anytime you want: You can learn on your own time and create a program that fits your needs. For instance, you can practice in bed before sleep. Or you could practice while you travel. That otherwise boring time on the plane will just fly by as you learn!
You can clearly learn English this way with a book, too, but with an app, you don’t need to carry anything other than your favorite device.
- Increased productivity: An English speaking app is always with you. Sometimes, you waste time while waiting for an appointment or on your commute, but by using an app you’ll have the chance to use that time in a more productive way: reviewing, learning and playing.
- Fun and motivation: Yes! You can learn while having fun. These apps let you play games and complete exercises while learning the language.
Plus, with an element of fun, English apps will help you stay motivated to keep practicing. Many of them will also track your learning progress, which can further boost motivation.
- Affordability: Maybe the biggest benefit of English speaking apps is that they’re affordable—sometimes, they’re even free! There are many apps that offer free lessons, activities and resources for speaking English.
So, there you have it: 13 remarkable English mobile apps that’ll guide you to improve your English speaking and conversational skills.
Using mobile apps is a fun and effective way to learn any language. They’re easily accessible, convenient and—most importantly—enjoyable and motivating.
These different apps will help get you confidently speaking English in no time.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
