Dictation - mic works but text doesn't appear

Recently the dictation feature stopped working on my iMac. I press the function key twice, music stops and the mic appears, the sound meter responds to hearing my voice, but what I say doesn't populate the text field (it remains blank). I saw the other discussions that say to tun it off, restart the computer, turn it back on, etc. but that didn't work.

I did try the speaking feature under Accessibility, and it DID type what I said there, but I can't have that on all the time.

Any ideas?