Enhancing English Speaking Skills in Romanian 8th Grade Classrooms through Conversational AI: The Case of Character.AI

For Romanian 8th graders, large class sizes and limited instruction time often curtail opportunitiesto practice speaking, hindering attainment of national curriculum targets (Limba modernă 1,clasele V-VIII) for skills such as storytelling, dialogue, making suggestions, and asking questions.This article examines the integration of Character.AI, a conversational AI platform, to providesupplemental interactive speaking practice aligned with these curricular objectives outside theclassroom. Through AI-driven persona-based dialogues and role-play scenarios, students engage inunscripted conversations that mirror 8th grade speaking tasks, effectively extending functionallanguage use beyond crowded classroom settings. Key outcomes include improved oral fluency,reduced speaking anxiety, and greater learner autonomy, as the AI’s patience and non-judgmentalstance creates a safe environment for repeated practice and risk-taking in language use. Moreover,the platform’s voice-based capabilities enable spontaneous spoken interaction, closely resemblingreal-life conversations and further reinforcing learners’ speaking proficiency. While the AIoccasionally misinterprets context or lacks explicit error correction, these limitations aremanageable with appropriate teacher guidance. Overall, the findings underscore the pedagogicalvalue of Character.AI as a complementary tool that aligns with Romania’s English curriculum andsubstantially enhances students’ speaking opportunities, helping them meet oral languageobjectives despite classroom constraints.