CadentiaGuide · For language teachers
Every student speaks. You see what they got wrong.
Speaking is the skill students most want and the one a class period has least time for. With thirty students and an hour, each one speaks for a minute or two at best, and the quiet ones often not at all. Speaking homework could fix that, if anyone could listen to it.
See how it works for teachersTeachers can set up a class for free. Schools can ask about a pilot.
The arithmetic
Why speaking gets squeezed out
Take a sixty-minute class. Remove instruction, reading, the warm-up and the transitions, and split what is left between thirty students, and speaking time per student is measured in seconds. The confident students take most of it. The ones who need it most get the least.
Homework does not fill the gap, because written work can be checked and speaking cannot, not for thirty students, every week. So speaking stays an in-class activity, and in-class time is the scarcest thing you have.
How it works
A speaking question, answered by the whole class
Set up a class
Create a class in a few minutes. Students join with a code or QR code on their phones.
Release a question
Now, or on a schedule from your term plan. Add a picture, a short text or an audio clip if you want them to respond to something.
Every student answers out loud
Each one sees two or three fixes on their own words and a smoother version, then says it again.
You see the class
Who answered, who did not, and the most common mistakes, ready to put on the board without names and reteach.
Beyond one question
What else teachers use
Class mistakes
All of the class’s errors grouped by category, with real sentences and no names, so you can pick what to reteach.
The board
Run a question live in class: join code, timer, “n of N answered”, then review cards with the fix hidden until you reveal it.
Practise your mistakes
A short drill for each student, built from their own errors.
Conversations
A topic and an optional text; each student talks it through with Cadi, and you can read the transcript with fixes marked.
Debates
A motion with For and Against sides, run on the board, with students speaking from their phones.
Class words
The words students reached for and did not have, ready to add to the class list.
Starting out
A first week that works
Try it yourself first: answer one question as a student would, on your own phone, so you know what your class will see. Then release an easy question, such as introducing themselves or describing their weekend, so the first experience is about getting used to speaking, not about difficulty.
At the start of the next lesson, open the class’s most common mistakes and put two or three sentences on the board, without names. Students tend to recognise their own sentence, and seeing that everyone makes the same slips takes some of the fear out of speaking. Then ask them to say their answer again.
Honestly
What it is, and what it is not
It is
- More speaking time for every student, including the quiet ones
- A clear view of who practised and what they got wrong
- A reteach list built from your own class’s sentences
- Phone-first, so it works as homework
It is not
- A replacement for you or your lessons
- An automatic grader: it does not give marks
- A course from zero; it works best once students have some language
- A finished exam mode (yet)
Questions
How do students join?
With a class code or a QR code, on their phone or a computer. They answer out loud in the browser.
Which languages does it support?
Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian and English.
Can I read what each student said?
Yes. Each answer has a transcript with the fixes marked in place, and you can add a mark and a comment. On the board, sentences are shown without names.
Does it grade students?
No. It shows fixes and tracks who practised. Marking stays with you.
What does it cost?
Teachers can set up a class for free. For a whole department or school, we run pilots; see the For teachers page.
Will students actually use it?
Teachers have told us students like that they are actually speaking, and that it feels closer to a chat than a worksheet. Like any homework, it works best when it is part of the class routine.