Daily speaking drill

Why a two-minute daily drill works

Most people only practise speaking the night before a talk, and then all at once. Speaking is a physical skill, a bit like playing an instrument: short, regular practice does more than one long, nervous session. Two minutes is short enough to fit before school, on a lunch break or while the kettle boils, and long enough to hear your habits: the “um” you reach for when you think, the sentences that speed up when you are excited, the pause you never quite take.

Doing it every day also takes the edge off nerves. Your voice gets used to being heard, and starting to talk without a script stops feeling like a leap. When the real presentation, oral exam, interview or toast arrives, opening your mouth is something you have already done many times that week.

The four kinds of drill

The prompt changes every day and works through four kinds of practice in turn, so you never get the same kind two days in a row.

• Impromptu topics. An everyday question to answer off the cuff, such as a skill you would like to learn or a small change that would improve your town. Make one point, give an example, then sum up. This is the closest practice to class discussions, interviews and question time.
• Tongue twisters. Traditional twisters from your own language. Say each one slowly and clearly first, then a little faster each time. They warm up your lips, tongue and jaw, which helps you sound crisp when you are nervous.
• Read with pauses. A short passage marked with / for a short pause and // for a full breath. Pausing is the most useful habit a speaker can learn: it gives the audience time to think and gives you time to breathe and look up.
• Toast openers. The first line of a toast for a birthday, graduation, wedding or farewell. Carry on in your own words for two minutes. It is good practice for any speech where you need warmth, a story and a clear ending.

How the on-device score works

Tick “Score my pace and filler words” before you start. When your browser can recognise speech on the device itself, the drill counts the words you say and the filler words you use, in your chosen language. At the end you get words per minute, filler words per minute and a score out of 100. Half the score is pace, compared with a comfortable range for that kind of drill: a little slower for reading with pauses, a little quicker for an impromptu topic. The other half is filler words.

The words themselves are never stored. No audio is recorded and nothing is sent to a server, so you can practise anywhere without worrying about who might hear it later. Browsers that can only send speech to the cloud are not used at all; the drill simply runs as a timer, and your streak still counts.

Keep a streak

Any drill of 30 seconds or more counts for the day. The streak shows how many days in a row you have practised, and the 12-week calendar shows every day you did a drill, with darker squares for days you did more than one. Both are kept in this browser, with no account needed. With Gold, each drill is also saved to your rehearsal history (numbers only), next to the rehearsals of your own speeches.

Tips for better drills

1. Stand up and speak at full volume. Mumbling at your desk does not train the voice you use in front of a room.
2. Swap fillers for silence. When you need a moment to think, close your mouth and pause. A one-second silence sounds confident; an “um” sounds unsure.
3. Finish on purpose. End with a clear last sentence instead of trailing off. “That is why I think…” is a good way in.
4. Try the same prompt twice. Press Try again and see whether your pace evens out and your fillers drop on the second go.

When you have a real speech coming up, turn it into cue cards in the editor and rehearse from them. The rehearsal coach listens the same way, follows your place on each card and tells you which lines you skipped.