A school in Manchesterthat built its own AI.
We teach English in classrooms and online. Our students needed somewhere to speak English between lessons, at any hour, so we built EEC Online: AI speaking partners that work alongside our British teachers, not instead of them. This is how it fits together.
130 Princess Road, Manchester M16 7BY
A real school, with real teachers
Express English College is an English language school at 130 Princess Road in Manchester, accredited by the British Council. We teach General English, Business English, IELTS preparation and conversation, from beginner to advanced.
- Accredited by the British Council
- Member of English UK
- Trinity exam centre
A school, not a marketplace.
Some apps give you a list of freelance tutors and leave you to choose. We work the way a good school does: the college finds the teachers, employs them and looks after the teaching. Every one of our teachers is British.
Teachers can’t be there at 11pm
Speaking is the skill that grows fastest with practice — and the hardest to practise alone. A class gives you a few hours a week with a teacher. The rest of the week, many students have nobody to speak English with.
So the college built EEC Online. In the hours between classes, you can call an AI partner, talk out loud for as long as your plan allows, and get corrected as you go.
We did not want a chatbot on the side. We wanted the practice to feed back into the school: your teacher sets the calls, sees the reports, and decides when you are ready for the next level.
Connecting the dots
Tap any dot to light up its connections and see what travels along each line. Or follow one practice call from start to finish.
Language model
A large language model reads what you said and answers in character as Tom, Daniel or Sophie. It also notices mistakes and suggests a better way to say it.
What flows along the lines
The technology, in plain words
Four kinds of AI work together in every call. Here is what each one does — and what it does not.
Speech recognition
Listens while you talk and writes down exactly what you said, so your partner can answer it.
It does not mark you. It only turns your voice into text.
A large language model
Reads what you said and answers as Tom, Daniel or Sophie. It also notices mistakes, suggests better ways to say things and writes your report.
It is not your teacher, and it can be wrong — so its scores are estimates and a teacher confirms your level.
Natural voice synthesis
Turns each reply into natural British speech. Every partner has their own voice.
It never speaks anything the partner did not write for your call.
Pronunciation assessment
When you ask “How do I say…?” and try a word, it scores each sound you made against how the word should sound.
It checks sounds, not accents: the aim is to be clear, not to sound like anyone else.
Keeping the AI in its place
A school has a duty of care, so the AI is built with limits.
Our instructions, not anyone else’s
Each partner’s role is written by the college and put together on our server. It is fixed for the whole call, and nobody can rewrite it from the app.
The AI only plays its part
Tom chats, Daniel plays the client or the interviewer, and Sophie stays an examiner — she does not correct you during a test.
Your words are treated as information
When you describe your own situation or paste a job advert, the text is cleaned and passed to the AI marked as information to use, not as orders to follow.
Some requests are refused
Text that tries to steer the AI, or is unsafe or off-topic, is turned down. If something worrying comes up, the app points you to the college’s Welfare Officer, NHS 111 or Samaritans.
Every call has a limit
Calls stop at a set length and count towards your daily speaking minutes, so practice stays practice.
Teachers stay in charge
Teachers set calls as homework, see the reports and issue certificates. The level on an EEC certificate is always confirmed by a teacher, and the AI IELTS band is an estimate, not an official IELTS score.
Your speech is turned into text so your partner can answer and you get a report. Privacy policy · AI use policy
Meet the AI partners
Tom for everyday English, Daniel for work and Sophie, our IELTS examiner. Pick one to hear a short sample call — no account or microphone needed.
Tom · A chat about your weekend
A sample call — sign up free to talk for real
Hi, I'm Tom! So, what did you get up to at the weekend?
Led by a person, not a program
Eddie Carey is the principal of Express English College. The college’s courses, its teachers and its standards sit behind everything in EEC Online — the AI is one more way to practise, run by the school.
More about the college