Dictation has stopped working on my iPad 3rd generation

I have always used (and loved) the dictation feature on my iPad 3rd gen. It has recently stopped working. I see the microphone hightlighted, but then it just spins and spins and returns to normal without showing anything written. I have done a hard restart a couple of times, checked the volume. Is there something else I need to do? I really miss this using this feature!