Elsa Speak Review 2024: Best Online Coach to Teach English Pronunciation

Remember the time when your classmates made fun of you just because you didn’t know English? Trust me, I know how it feels. I have also gone through it. Though I had forgotten this incident, it was all once again in front of me when my student told me about a similar incident that happened to her. Sadly, people have started giving English so much importance that they do not even care about the mental health of others. But not anymore. Recently, while helping her, I got to know about Elsa Speak. I believe it’s a perfect solution to this problem. Thus, I thought to give an Elsa Speak review in detail.

Go through it and see how it will improve your pronunciation from zero to the advanced level.

Quick Takeaways

• Elsa Speak is baiscally the platform that helps to guide how to speak English properly. There are over 8000 activities available on it. 
• The platform offer free content but is limited. You must get the subscription plan to take full advantage of the platform.
• You can also prepare for IELTS and TOEFL exams. There are courses specifically for these exams.
• It has a speech analyzer tool that helped to get the instant feedback on what you say. 

What is Elsa Speak?

Elsa Speak is an online platform that can also be called an online coach to teach English properly. It boosts confidence while having English communication and the global opportunity in it. It has over 8000 activities on the platform, helping in mastering English in different skills including pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. It also has practice lessons for IELTS and TOEFL. The platform uses a Neutral American accent to help the users get the right pronunciation level. 

Pricing of Elsa Speak

There is a free version of this platform but the content on it is limited. To access all the courses, lessons, and other important features, you must take the subscription plan. There are two types of plans and their pricing depends on the duration of the plan-

Types of the plan	Monthly	3 Months	Yearly
Elsa Pro	$19.99	$58 ($19.33 per month)	$149.99 ($11.83 per month)
Elsa Premium	No plan	$68 ($22.67 per month)	$199.99 ($16.67 per month)

Starting with the Platform

When you visit the official website of the platform, there are different tabs on it. Let me show what they are one by one-

1. Product 

It is the tab that provides the full course to learn English properly. This tab is further divided into two sections-

• Elsa Speak: This section covers the pricing of the course. It will help you decide which subscription plan is needed.
• Speech Analyzer: This is the feature that provides immediate feedback on what you speak. Though it is a paid feature, you can try it for free in the beginning. 

2. Learn English

As the name suggests, it is a tab that covers the basics of learning English. Just like above this tab is further divided into two sections:

How to pronounce 

This service is also paid, but some words are free to try. All you have to do is to listen to the words carefully and then try it by yourself. There is also an explanation of the word and a YouTube video showing how others speak it. This way can help in increasing your confidence.

Experience Elsa

This section is where you can practice pronunciation. There will be a word on the screen without the meaning. In starting it will test the pronunciation of the words, but slowly it will turn into lessons and then in the conversations.

3. English for Companies 

This tab is for the companies that train their employees to have IELTS-level English. It covers the pricing for them. 

4. English for Schools 

The next tab is for the school itself. English is the language that is mainly taught in the school itself. Many students are not very confident when it comes to speaking English. This tool can help the schools to boost their confidence.

However, the above shows the tab you get on the web version. You must download the platform on your mobile phone to use it properly.

Course overview on Elsa Speak

In starting there is a practice session that will help in understanding how the platform works. You can either take that or skip that. After skipping the practice, answer some questions to get started with the course. There are a lot of features that you get in the course along with the lessons. Let us learn all the aspects of the course one by one:

1. Skills

In the skill section, there are 21 different planets, each of a different color. These skills represent different pronunciation skills. Some of them are:

• Ending sounds
• Welcome
• Nasal
• /u/, /ʊ/
• Diphthongs
• /p/ /t/ /k/
• R sounds and many more

Each skill is broken down into the topics. These topics have several lessons based on pronunciations, dialogues, and syllable stress. Each lesson is very short and focuses on 5 words, phrases, and syllables each day. It follows the gamified approach and also allows us to track the progress easily on the screen. Once I mastered that word, it turned green. However, remember quitting the mid-lessons will lose all the progress made so far. 

If something is not clear to you, make sure to take the help of the hint option. On the left side of each skill, there is a question mark on it. Click on it and get the meaning of it.

There are different types of lessons focusing on specific exercises-

a. Listening exercises

The first ever lesson that I got on the platform was the listening lesson. I believe without listening to a word or something, it is impossible to understand the right way to speak. Thus, this exercise is extremely important. It is started with the sound of 2 similar options. Select a single word out of two options. If the answer is correct, there is a phonetic spelling of both the words. Get at least an 80% score to pass the lessons. 

b. Speaking exercises

In this exercise, I had to practice speaking after hearing the native speaker’s voice. The audio voice can be adjusted at different speeds. According to one user, he had better results when he spoke slowly. However, for me, speaking normally also helped me to pass the lessons. 

In this exercise there are two options at the top of the screen-

• Regular 
• Advance (for paid users)

Take advantage of both the options. After using both options, one thing was sure, a person who has zero knowledge will get a lot of benefits from it. As my student was having trouble with English, I asked her to start with the Regular option and then shift to the Advanced level. In short, it should be toggled. This helps in getting the right pronunciation of the words and sentences. 

c. Syllable stress lessons 

They are the lessons which are different from the other lessons. There is a word on the screen with the right syllable highlighted in the green color. Just focus on it while speaking. As the main motive of this lesson is to teach the right Syllabus, the platform checks if you are using it correctly or not.

When it asked me to say an Example, the platform wanted to know if I had the right pronunciation of amp. But this is wrong. If someone is saying a word wrongly but with the correct syllable stress, the platform passes the student. 

d. Dialogues lessons

It is very common to get dialogue-based exercises while learning a new language. In fact, when I was learning Spanish, this was the only exercise I looked at. Just like a drama club, there are multiple dialogues in the lessons. It’s like a story going on. You have to read the dialogues and answer them by recording yourself. 

There is also instant feedback with the mistake marked in Red. You can also get the tips by tapping on the letters marked red in color. 

2. Topics

The next section that is available on the platform is the topics section. It is different from skills. There are different topics covered on the platform focusing on different pronunciation skills. All the lessons covered in this section revolve around the vocabulary related to a particular topic. Although the structure of the lessons in this section is the same as the skills section. All the exercises are created similarly. At present, there are more than 50 topics covered on the platform. Below is a list of a few of them-

• Introduction
• Movie
• Interview
• Family
• Food
• Culture
• Beat IELTS
• Travel
• Real-life stories
• Relationships 
• Education 
• Taxi Driver
• Banking
• Business
• Working at a hotel

In addition to these two sections, different courses also provide certificates for completing them. Again the way it is created follows a similar structure. There are listening, and speaking lessons in it. Some of the courses covered on the platform are mentioned below-

• Introduction to IELTS Band
• TOEFL by HarperCollins
• PearsonPTE Prep (B1)
• Oxford Business Result and many more
• Additional features

Some additional exciting features help in getting personalized experiences while learning the language. Below I will discuss each of them one by one-

3. Speech Analyzer

As I already mentioned above, this is an exciting feature on the platform that helps in get feedback instantly on your pronunciation skills. There are a lot of topics covered in this section. Based on the topic chosen, there is a small conversation in it. Give the answers to each question and get feedback on it. 

4. Study sets

They are the sets of words and phrases created related to a single topic. You can either premade sets by others or create one of your choices. I really think creating the one of your own choice is better than using the premade sets. There were so many decks on the platform. I tried 3 different sets and none of them matches my interest. 

5. Dictionary 

The dictionary is a cool feature on the platform. This feature has two sections – Speak and Scan Image. The Speech section is simple. Just say the word or phrase and get the score of it. Whereas, for the Scan Image section, an image is converted into text. You have to repeat the text and again get the score.

6. Coach

Coach is a premium feature that helps in stay motivated to learn English. There is a daily reminder to use it. Just choose your daily goal by going to the settings options. If you are a beginner select 10 minutes each day. After completing the sessions, daily performance is calculated.  There are scores based on different aspects. It also gives additional feedback on the lessons completed. 

7. Join community

Communities are the feature that has multiple ways to connect with others. There are different groups to connect with others. You can join the group on Telegram, Zalo, Discord, etc. This section also covers the video platforms and social media platforms where you can stay updated with the latest updates of the platforms. Some of these apps are YouTube, Facebook, Linkedin, etc. 

There is also a feature called community feed, which includes videos related to the update of the platform. It also has videos that cover different phrases to learn. 

8. Games

There are some exercises created in the form of games. The most common game that I got in it is Unscrambling words and Missing letters.

In the profile tab, you get a dashboard where oy can check the progress made so far. It will show the number of words learned, certifications done, and the achievements received. An interesting fact about it is that you can add your friends to it by sending a friend request to them.

Elsa Speak Review: Is it useful?

English is a language that most of us learn because of communication purposes. If you are also having the same goal, this is the best tool you will come across. As the name suggests, it is the one used to improve pronunciation. Multiple features help in it. After using it, I know it will not only teach how to say a word but also teach the pronunciation of the sound and focus on stress syllables. It is natural to not expect writing exercises on this platform.

However, having a tight budget can be a problem for you. In such a situation I would suggest you take a 3-month together plan rather than an annual one. Also, one thing that I hated the most was that the stress syllable could pass you even if you are saying the word wrongly and syllable correctly. This should not be done according to me. Except for that, the platform is really worthy of improving the pronunciation. 

What are the benefits and drawbacks of the Elsa Speak?

Though I have discussed if you should use it or not, it is important to give a short comparison of the platform. Thus, I have added a table showing the advantages and drawbacks of the platform-

Pros	Cons
There is instant automated feedback on the pronunciations.	Syllable exercise can be bassed even if you do not make a correct pronunciation of the word properly.
Each feature has a host to go through it.	The exercises are repetitive after some time.
There are different exercises for improving speaking skills like listening and recording ones.	The exercises are repetitive after sometimes.
There are over 21 skills and more than 50 topics covered on the platform.

Elsa Speak Alternatives

I believe English has become important to grow. Most of the companies, even the smaller ones, look for people knowing English to communicate at the international level. Thus it is important to learn it. I would recommend you use two to three platforms together to learn it-

1. iTalki

If you are not fully satisfied with Elsa Speak, I would suggest you connect with a tutor online. iTalki is what you should try on. It is a platform that has several tutors to teach you the language. The price you pay will depend upon the tutor itself and other related factors like teaching experience. 

Note: Another platform where you can get live tutors to teach the English language is Preply.

2. Speechling

This can be a great alternative if you think the voice recognition of Elsa Speak is not worth it. It is a free tool to use. There is a recording provided by a native English speaker. Just listen to it and record it on the platform itself. After speaking it, there will be feedback within 24 hours of submission. There are more than 1000 words and sentences that you can practice on it.

3. Tandem

One of the important ways to learn a language is to practice it with others who know how to speak it. Tandem is a platform that brings various language learners together on a single platform. Connect with native English speakers freely and start having conversations with them. It will help to improve conversational skills and boost confidence. 

Conclusion

ELSA Speak is a platform that is designed to improve conversational skills in the English language. The platform has multiple features that keep the user engaged with the lessons. Some skills and topics help in learning the language. Both sections follow types of exercises that improve the basics of the language. In addition to that, some features help users stay engaged with the content. There is a voice recognition tool that gives instant feedback on pronunciation. Along with that, there are multiple games to enjoy the things learned on the platform.

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