Speaking practice: answer out loud, then listen back
Pick a question set, let your browser read the question aloud, and answer against a timer. Your answer is recorded on this device only, so you can play it back straight away and check it against a short list. Then answer again. It works for oral exams, interviews, presentations and any topic you want to be able to explain.
Keep practising out loud with Poppy. Talk, hear Poppy reply, and answer its follow-up question. Voice-first, or type if you prefer. Free with 30 messages a day, then $3.99/week or $9.99/month (US App Store) · iPhone, iPad, Mac
Free, no account. The question is read aloud by your browser's own voice, and your answer is recorded on your device only: it is never uploaded, and it's gone when you close the page unless you save it. Made by the Ask Poppy team.
How to use it (10 minutes)
- Listen once. Press read aloud and don't look at the text, the way you'd hear it in the room.
- Think, then talk. Use the thinking time, then answer until the timer runs out or you're done.
- Listen back with the checklist. Tick only what you can actually hear.
- Answer again straight away, fixing the one thing you didn't tick.
- Come back on another day and try a question you found hard. Spreading practice out tends to make it stick better than one long session.
Question sets
All questions are our own. Choose a set above, or read them here. For exam-specific practice, see IB oral practice, Oxbridge-style interview questions and IELTS-style speaking (Parts 1 to 3). For children: English speaking practice for kids and class presentation practice.
Explain a topic out loud (any subject)
- Pick one topic you studied this week. Explain it to someone who missed the lesson, in under two minutes.
- What is the single most important idea in the topic you're revising, and why does everything else depend on it?
- Explain the topic you find hardest right now. Say exactly where it stops making sense.
- Take a key term from your notes. Define it without using the word itself, then give an example and a non-example.
- What is a common mistake people make on this topic, and how would you explain the fix?
- Explain a process from your course step by step, and say why each step has to come before the next.
- Compare two ideas from your course that are easy to mix up. How would you tell them apart in an exam answer?
- If you could ask your teacher one question about this topic, what would it be, and what do you think the answer is?
- Explain why something in your subject happens, not just what happens. Give the cause, then the effect.
- Teach the topic to a curious 12-year-old. Which part do you need to simplify, and what do you lose by simplifying it?
Presentations and follow-up questions
- Give the one-minute version of your presentation: what is your main point, and why should anyone care?
- Someone in the audience says: "I don't think your evidence supports that." How do you respond?
- What is the weakest part of your argument, and how would you defend it?
- Explain your method or approach to someone who has never done this kind of project.
- If you had another month, what would you change about this work, and why?
- Summarise your conclusion in one sentence, then explain what it does not show.
- What question are you hoping nobody asks? Answer it now.
- Give a real-world example that makes your main point easier to understand.
Interview warm-ups (university, college or a job)
- Tell me about yourself in a minute, focusing on what you're curious about.
- Why this course or role, rather than something close to it?
- Tell me about something you read, watched or made recently that changed how you think.
- Describe a time you got something wrong. What did you do next?
- What is a question in your field that you'd like to be able to answer?
- Talk about a time you had to learn something difficult on your own. How did you go about it?
- What do you think you'd find hardest about this course or job, and how would you handle it?
- Is there anything you'd like to ask us?
Language speaking: everyday conversation (answer in the language you're learning)
The questions are read in English. Answer in the language you're learning; tip: say the question back in that language before you answer.
- Describe what you did last weekend, and what you'd do differently next time.
- Talk about a place you'd like to visit and why.
- Describe your daily routine, then say how it's changed in the last year.
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of social media for people your age?
- Describe a person who has influenced you.
- Talk about your favourite food and how it's made.
- What would you change about your school or town if you could?
- Describe a film, book or series you enjoyed and give your opinion of it.
Why practise out loud and listen back?
Explaining something in your own words, out loud, makes gaps in understanding obvious fast: the sentence you can't finish is the part you don't know yet. Research on self-explanation found that prompting learners to explain material to themselves helped learning across many subjects. Simply reading notes aloud is different: it can help you remember a text, but not understand it better. So the tool asks you questions to answer, not text to read.
Listening back is uncomfortable, and that's the point. You hear what a listener hears: the answer that starts three sentences late, the missing example, the "um" that fills a gap in thinking.
Want someone to ask the follow-up questions? Ask Poppy is an AI tutor you can talk to. You answer out loud, it asks the next question based on what you actually said, and it gives hints rather than model answers. Free, 30 messages a day on iPhone, iPad and Mac; unlimited is optional at $3.99 a week or $9.99 a month (US). Like any AI it can make mistakes. (Disclosure: this site is made by the Ask Poppy team.)
Questions
How do I practise for a speaking exam or interview on my own?
Answer a question out loud against a timer, record it, then listen back with a short checklist: did you answer the question, give a reason and an example, keep thinking out loud when stuck? Answer the same question again, and come back to it on another day.
Is my recording uploaded anywhere?
No. The recording is made by your browser with MediaRecorder and kept in this tab's memory. Nothing is sent to us or anyone else. It disappears when you reload or leave the page, unless you choose to save the file to your device.
Why is the question read aloud instead of just shown?
In an oral exam or interview you hear the question, often once. Hearing it trains you to listen, hold the question in mind and start answering without rereading it. The voice is your device's built-in text-to-speech, so it works offline once the page has loaded.
Which browsers does it work in?
Recent Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari (including iPhone and iPad) support both read-aloud and recording. Your browser will ask for microphone permission the first time. If recording isn't available, you can still use the questions and the timer.
Does this mark my answer?
No. It doesn't listen to or analyse what you say. The self-check list is for you to use while you play your answer back, the way a teacher would listen for structure, reasons and examples.