[applesan]

Generally if you are beginner and want to actually learn the language, you should focus on the input not the output.

Few problems I find with these kind of apps:

How is that different from just using chatGPT?

Why can't I just write my response instead of using mic?

chatGPT makes mistakes, as a beginner you can't spot them. (I talked to it in polish (my native language), it was making grammar mistakes)

Speech recognition is not the same as native listening to you, speech recognition software may "understand" you, but native would not and vice versa.

ChatGPT can't correct your pronunciation.

Replies generated are stiff and unnatural.

TTS can't model speech accurately (it lacks emotions etc.)

[realusername]

I personally like that it's using speech recognition.

First, chatting and speaking are not nearly using the same skills, training for one does not necessarily train the other and you can end up having a hard time to find the words you want on the spot.

Secondly, speech recognition while not perfect, does help to make you understood by a native speaker. Speech recognition is usually working best on what's considered some of the most neutral accents in the target language, which is as a foreign speaker, exactly what you want. Seeing the recognition failed is a clue that you might need to train again to speak those words.

> TTS can't model speech accurately (it lacks emotions etc.)

I do agree on this last part though and usually TTS lacks support for other accents.

[applesan]

I agree that chatting and speaking requires different skill set. However I would argue that it is even more of an argument to not use speech recognition here (or at least not to force it), because chatGPT is chatting and learner is speaking. Transcription will always lose some information (for example your tone can indicate sarcasm, but chatGPT can't detect it).

To the second point: whisper can be helpful, but how can you know if it fails because of you and not the software's error? I spoke in my native language with traditional accent and it still made mistakes, also it hallucinates. Additionally being understood by whisper doesn't mean, native will understand you.