Pronunciation Coach
Analyze spoken English pronunciation using Azure Speech Services and provide actionable coaching feedback.
Privacy Note: This skill reads local voice messages from ~/.openclaw/media/inbound/ and transmits them to Microsoft Azure Speech Services for processing.
Prerequisites
- Azure Speech API Key: Set
AZURE_SPEECH_KEY env var - Azure Speech Region: Set
AZURE_SPEECH_REGION env var (e.g., southeastasia) - ffmpeg: Required for audio format conversion (must be on PATH)
- Node.js: Required for report generation
Workflow
1. Receive Audio
Voice messages from Telegram are stored in ~/.openclaw/media/inbound/. Find the latest .ogg file matching the message timestamp.
ls -lt ~/.openclaw/media/inbound/*.ogg | head -5
2. Run Assessment
scripts/pronunciation-assess.sh <audio_file> "<reference_text>"
audio_file: Path to the voice message (ogg/wav/mp3/m4a)reference_text: What the speaker intended to say (from transcript)- The script auto-converts any format to WAV 16kHz mono
3. Generate Report
Pipe the JSON output into the report generator:
scripts/pronunciation-assess.sh audio.ogg "reference text" | node scripts/pronunciation-report.js
The report includes:
- Overall scores (Pronunciation, Accuracy, Fluency, Prosody, Completeness)
- Word-by-word breakdown with per-phoneme scores
- Problem sounds highlighted
- Verdict with actionable next steps
4. Provide Coaching
After generating the report:
- Send the text report to the user (scores + word breakdown)
- Identify top 3 problem sounds from the phoneme scores
- Explain each problem — what the correct sound is and how to produce it
- See
references/phoneme-guide.md for phoneme descriptions and fixes
- Send a voice message (via TTS) demonstrating the correct pronunciation of problem words
- Assign practice — give the user specific sentences to re-record focusing on weak sounds
Coaching Tips
- Scores ≥ 90: Excellent, minor polish
- Scores 70-89: Good, targeted practice needed
- Scores < 70: Needs focused drill on that specific sound
- "Omission" errors mean the word wasn't detected — speaker may have been too quiet or mumbled
- Prosody score < 85 suggests monotone delivery — coach on intonation rises/falls
- Compare scores across multiple recordings to track improvement