A graphical user interface provides a graphical volume meter indicating the volume of the user's speech and a speech recognition meter showing the progress of a speech recognizer. The graphical volume meter and recognition meter are both located near each other on the display such that the user can focus on both meters at the same time. One aspect of the present invention is that a speech recognition meter is placed on the display near the insertion point where the user intends their speech to take effect. Thus, the user does not have to divert their view from the insertion point in order to check the progress of the speech recognizer.