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Dictation activities

I've recently been asked to teach a class of students to prepare them for the new Pearson PTE (Academic) exam. I am a little unfamiliar with the test as it is a computer-based one, and there are very few example tests that I can look at.

Nevertheless, from what I have seen, the task types are extremely clear. In the speaking part for example, the task types include reading aloud, listen and repeat, describing an image, re-telling a lecture (a summary) and answering a short question. These are not particularly communicative tasks and standard classroom practices such as pair work and group work (ie. speaking tasks that involve more than one people) are not always the most effective preparation. The challenge therefore is to provide students with some fun, engaging and effective practice tasks. I use dictation a lot as it is a powerful way to integrate grammar and vocabulary with speaking and listening.

Dictation has had a pretty bad press, and any mention of it may send people quivering in horror at the thought of having to write down scores of lines of text. However, this is not the case, and there are a variety of dictation tasks that can make the class fun, show a good model of language, and form the basis of effective language practice for students.

I've collated some tasks that I have been using with my students to prepare them for the Pearson exam.

Example tasks

  1. Dictogloss (prepares students for re-telling a lecture)

A dictogloss is a type of dictation where the teacher reads a text, which students have to make notes of and then recreate using their own words. The purpose is to have students "notice" grammar or vocabulary, or other stylistic feature of a text. Teachers and students can analyse the text for structure, or any salient language points that are a feature of lectures (lectures are usually highly structured).

      2. Mutual dictation

This is where students dictate to each other. I do this by giving students half a text each, and have them read their parts of the text to each other in order to complete a coherent whole. They can do this by either summarising their part of the text, or by reading the text aloud to their partner. This can also be done with dates, numbers, telephone numbers, addresses ... anything that a student may need to write down from speech.

      3.  Text to graph

This is another pairwork task. One student is given a description of a graph or an image, while the other has an incomplete image. The speaker reads aloud (or summarises) their text, while the listener has to complete the image they have. This works well with graphs, tables or charts.

      4. Running dictation

Straight from the CELTA handbook. Texts are posted on the wall around the classroom. Students (working in pairs) take in turns to read the text, remember it, tell it to their partner who writes it down. This can be done with single sentences, or longer texts where speakers have to summarise what they read.

      5. Stop/rewind/repeat

The teacher reads a text at a normal speed. Students have to listen and write down what the teacher says. If they need to go over part of it again, they ask the teacher to stop, rewind and repeat, each time the teacher speaking at normal speed (clear but not too slow, using features of connected speech). The teacher can be replaced with a CD (but the controls will be the same).

      6. Picture dictations

Similar to text-to-graph, both partners have images, which they describe to each other while their partner draws it. Students may need preparation time before dictating.

      7. Error dictation

Students are given a text which has a number of errors in it. The speaker reads the text aloud, while the listener has to read and correct the mistakes. This can be done as a type of paired dictation, where one partner has the original, or it can be done as a whole class dictation (the teacher reads aloud, or uses the CD).

      8. Gap fill dictation

Similar to the error dictation, but instead of an error, there is a gap.

      9. Phonemic dictation

Not a particularly good name, but an effective way of practising using connected speech. Students are given short sentences written in phonemic script. Students read aloud what they see (including obviously all the features of connected speech such as assimilation, catenation etc.) while their partner writes it down. This could be done as a running dictation, too.

      10. Retelling

Students are given a text (for example, a joke or a story) which they tell a partner (who writes down a summary). They then change partners and continue telling the same story to different students until there is no need for reading aloud, as students have (hopefully) remembered the text that they are telling.

     11. Dictate vocabulary

The teacher reads out sentences, or short complete texts, which contain new vocabulary. Students write the sentences down (inferring the spelling from the dictation) before using a dictionary to find the definitions. This mirrors the way that students encounter new vocabulary in everyday life - as it is a very lucky language learner who is presented with all new words before they engage in a conversation with a native speaker.

      12. Mark the punctuation

Students are given a text with no punctuation. The teacher reads the text aloud, and students have to infer what punctuation goes where. This highlights how punctuation reflects the pauses and changes in intonation in connected speech. Since the PTE Academic is a computerised test, students need to have good punctuation as the computer relies on punctuation to analyse the complexity of the language (using its top secret algorithm).

Secretary-and-boss-008

That's enough to be getting with I think. Sometimes I like to put music on in the background for paired dictations, while sometimes I get students to sit really far apart from each other, so they have to speak audibly and clearly to their partner. Dictation can be used to liven up a sleep class, or calm a lively class and a good dictatist (dictator?) can exude a calm authority over the class. If anyone has any other ideas, or improvements on these ideas, then let me know.

Further reading

Ruth Wajnryb's "Dictogloss" is a good book on using dictation to teach grammar. Mario Rinvolucri and Paul Davis wrote an excellent book on dictation about 20 years ago.