Speechling App Review 🦜 Should I Download It?

The Ins and Outs of Speechling; Is This App for You this 2023?

Speechling Review: 8/10
Speechling is a great app that focuses on speaking; actually using the language. It’s a great addition to other resources for those that want to practice speech and have feedback from native speakers.

Learning a new language is never easy. One of the hardest things to grasp (you know, besides vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, and whatnot) is pronunciation.

More and more language-learning apps pop up every day, but not every one focuses on pronunciation.

Speechling does (it specializes in that, in fact).

Even so, is it actually good? Here’s what LTL thinks of Speechling.

We only tried their Chinese (Simplified) curriculum, although all languages presumably follow similar teaching methods.

Speechling Review 1 // Intro & Key Stats

Speechling Review 2 // Pros & Cons

Speechling Review 3 // Price (subscription)

Speechling Review 4 // What is Speechling?

Speechling Review 5 // How do I Use Speechling?

Speechling Review 6 // The Curriculum

Speechling Review 7 // Free Or Premium?

Speechling Review 8 // List of Languages Offered (13)

Speechling Review 9 // Final Thoughts

Speechling Review 10 // Where to Download

Speechling Review 11 // FAQs

Speechling Review // Key Info

Niú Chinese Key Stats

Speechling Review // Pros & Cons

Speechling Review // Price

Speechling is a free app that offers all of its content for free. However, the premium subscription gives you access to premium lessons as well as 1-on-1 tutoring.

Speechling Review // What is Speechling?

In short, Speechling is an online educational service, a non-profit based in the U.S.

They have a website and is available for download on both Android and iOS.

Speechling specializes in online speech tutoring, though they offer a cohesive curriculum in reading and writing as well.

Specifically, their audio recordings are recorded by real people in an effort to provide students with a more real education about what languages sound like. (This is elaborated upon more on their White Paper page.)

In summary, their entire curriculum is geared towards speech.

Speechling Review // How Do I use Speechling?

Speechling’s website is very intuitive and user-friendly — the design makes sense, and it’s also pleasing to the eye.

Their app falls subpar in comparison to the website, but it’s still good and helpful for on-the-go learning.

Furthermore, their curriculum is split into numerous modules from Beginner to Expert.

There are also different foundations such as “Nouns” and “Verbs“, and themes (aka “Phrasebooks”) such as “Asking for Help” and “Weather”.

As its name suggests, Speechling focuses on speech. This is done mainly through “Speechling Conversations”.

For all three options, you get around 10 seconds (this is extended if you get premium) to answer a question, describe an image, or say anything you want.

Within 24 hours, your assigned coach will provide you feedback on where you can improve.

Their curriculum is also centred around speech and will be elaborated upon later.

Additionally, Speechling has a search option, where users can search for characters or phrases.

Related sentences pop up afterwards.

Sentences are spoken in Chinese by both male and female voices; offered in pinyin, Hanzi, and English; and can be recorded by the user for pronunciation comparison and speech coaching.

Given that, “Search” is less of a dictionary and more about the application of vocabulary.

Your progress is visualized in “Skill Tree”, which is broken down into different sections.

Speechling also offers an user guide on its website.

Speechling Review // The Curriculum

Speechling’s curriculum is presented in their “Toolbox”, and is broken down into five categories:

• Dictation Practice: Type what you hear.
• Listening Practice: Practice your skills.
• Flashcards: Build your vocabulary.
• Multiple Choice Quiz: Test yourself on your progress.
• Fill In The Blank: Learn in context.

Dictation Practice: Type what you hear.

After playing a short audio recording of a Chinese sentence, you type out a transcript of what they said.

Listening Practice: Practice your skills.

Speechling plays a sentence in Chinese and English in order to help you practice your comprehension skills.

You can also record the sentence after to compare your pronunciation and send to your speech coach if you want.

Flashcards: Build your vocabulary.

Speechling plays a Chinese sentence, and underneath is its written form.

“Flashcards” tests if you understood what the audio said, which is translated in English.

In particular, “Flashcards” is broken down into three study modes:

• Speak: You repeat the sentence in Chinese.
• Understand: Select ‘Easy’, ‘Okay’, or ‘Hard’ based off how much you comprehend. The sentence will be recycled later depending on how much you understand.
• Lecture: Speechling plays the sentence in Chinese.

Multiple Choice Quiz: Test yourself on your progress.

Speechling plays a Chinese sentence, and it’s also written out.

You choose the correct English translation; this is essentially the same idea as “Flashcards”, though this time the English counterpart is presented as a multiple-choice quiz.

Fill In The Blank: Learn in context.

In this exercise, Speechling presents a partial sentence, and you have to type the character that fits in the blank.

The sentence is also translated into English.

As a side note, I found “Fill In The Blank” to be hardest but most helpful as it requires more reading comprehension than other exercises. There isn’t Chinese pinyin here and because Chinese grammar isn’t always reflected in English grammar, “Fill In The Blank” meant more reading and understanding actual Chinese characters. Which I’m bad at.

Speechling Review // Free Or Premium?

Like most apps, Speechling is a freemium service; they offer free learning tools that can be upgraded for access to more.

Unlike many other apps, Speechling’s free tools are actually quite extensive.

Speechling emphasizes its “free” online speech tutoring.

Their website says that even for free, students are given 10 coaching sessions per month.

These coaching sessions are with real teachers who give feedback within 24 hours.

Regardless, users still get full access to their curriculum comprised of flashcards and quizzes without paying.

The main selling point of their premium program, which costs $19.99 per month, is their “unlimited, personal, 1-on-1 coaching”.

For more avid language learners, 10 sessions per month are not enough.

If you don’t want more than a few coaching lessons per month, then their free version should be enough.

Speechling Review // List of Languages (13)

Below is a list of languages offered by Speechling.

1. French
2. German
3. Italian
4. Spanish
5. Spanish (Latin America)
6. Chinese (Simplified)
7. Chinese (Traditional)
8. Portuguese
9. English (UK)
10. English (US)
11. Russian
12. Japanese
13. Korean

Speechling Review // Final Thoughts

Speechling’s website is well-designed — some educational platforms tend to favour good design over clear explanations of vocabulary, for instance, which is nice to look at but unhelpful for learning a new language.

Speechling ensures that language learning is still the priority.

Regarding the educational material itself, Speechling is likely better for beginners and intermediate learners, as it seems to be geared towards them more.

The more advanced your language ability becomes, the more likely you’ll need more personalized teaching.

Speechling offers this to some degree, but not enough.

Another key point you should keep in mind is that most (if not all) language learning apps aren’t meant to build fluency but to build a foundation.

Becoming truly fluent requires a lot more tailored learning that likely extends beyond just the Internet.

Speechling is a good option for building a foundation, and then some.

Overall, I would recommend Speechling. It emphasizes its speech tutoring, and for good reason — many services often lack this, and Speechling understands that pronunciation is frequently a difficult part of learning a new language.

For Chinese especially, mixing up tones can completely change the meaning of the sentence.

The caveat of this? You have to wait for your feedback to come in, and you don’t get a notification when it does (at least I didn’t).

Speechling requires some form of commitment where you have to come back a day later and actually check how you did. It understandably doesn’t offer immediate feedback, so it’s easy to record your sentence and forget to come back to it.

For those who want to learn faster, there’s no instantaneous way to check your pronunciation the way some other apps do (albeit with limited accuracy).

It all depends on what you prioritize.

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Speechling // Where to Download

You can use Speechling on Desktop, iOS, or Android.

Note: some languages may not be available on the apps compared to the desktop version.

iOS

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/speechling-learn-any-language/id1239983313

Android

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.speechling.speechling&hl=en&gl=US

Speechling // FAQs

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