Assessing oral skills with AI: what does integrated phonetic analysis enable?

Traditional oral assessment tools, while useful, often lack the precision needed for truly personalized support. The integration of artificial intelligence and advanced phonetic analysis in Beyond Words VR opens up a new realm of possibilities: a detailed, visual, and actionable feedback system that transforms the experience for both learners and instructors.

Word-by-word and syllable-by-syllable analysis

When a user speaks in Beyond Words VR, their utterance is not only analyzed as a whole but also broken down word by word, and then syllable by syllable. The interface clearly displays each expected phoneme alongside the phoneme that was actually pronounced.

On the right-hand side of the screen, one column shows the correct phoneme, while the other shows what the AI detected in the user’s speech. This allows for pinpoint identification of discrepancies between the learner's pronunciation and the native-language model.

What this changes for learners

For students or professionals in training, this detailed feedback becomes a real learning tool. They don’t just hear that they mispronounced a word — they know where, how, and why. They can replay a difficult word as many times as they like, focus on the problematic syllable, and keep practicing until they get it right.

This level of feedback fosters a deeper phonological awareness than a simple correction. Learners become active in their self-correction, boosting autonomy, confidence, and motivation.

A powerful resource for instructors

For teachers, training coordinators, or corporate HR teams, this data provides a clear view of learners’ true oral performance. It becomes possible to identify recurring errors per individual, group, or phoneme, and to tailor training programs accordingly.

An educator can prepare targeted remediation for certain sounds (such as the English “th” or French nasal vowels), or track an individual learner’s progress over several weeks with unprecedented precision.

In companies, this type of analysis also makes it easier to verify that employees are making measurable progress in oral communication — particularly useful in multilingual work environments or customer service roles.

Toward a new oral learning culture

By making the mechanisms of oral language visible, Beyond Words VR helps transform teaching and learning practices. Oral skills are no longer judged globally; they become a technical skill that can be improved with the right tools.

Integrated phonetic analysis acts like a precise and supportive linguistic mirror, allowing each user to move at their own pace, with clear, visual, and motivating progress indicators.