A study of students’ perception of character AI in practicing English speaking fluency

This study explores students’ perceptions of Character AI as a tool for improving English speaking fluency in an Indonesian EFL context. As AI-powered conversational platforms become more prominent in education, Character AI stands out for offering unscripted, persona-driven dialogues that simulate real-life interactions. Employing a qualitative phenomenological approach, the research involved ten 10th-grade students who had used Character AI for speaking practice. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observations, and student transcript documentation, then analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings reveal three major benefits: improved speaking fluency, increased learner confidence, and greater flexibility in practice. Students reported reduced hesitation, better sentence construction, and enhanced vocabulary through consistent AI interaction. They also experienced lower anxiety and greater willingness to speak, citing the judgment-free environment provided by AI as crucial to building confidence. However, several challenges were noted, including AI’s limited contextual understanding, inaccurate speech recognition, and lack of real-time grammar correction. Technical issues, such as accent misinterpretation, occasionally disrupted conversations. Despite these limitations, students perceived Character AI as a valuable supplementary tool for speaking practice, particularly in situations where human interaction is limited. The study concludes that Character AI has strong potential to enhance speaking fluency and learner autonomy, but its effectiveness would benefit from integration with teacher guidance and complementary language support. These findings contribute to the growing body of research on AI in language learning and offer practical implications for its use in Indonesian classrooms.