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**********************************************************************Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1993From: Anthea Tillyer <[email protected]>
What does the group feel about the efficacy of dictations? I will come outof the closet and say that I think dictations serve a useful purpose in thelanguage classroom (from L1 to L10). Obviously, I don't think thata teacher should work ONLY with dictations, but a few well-selected pieces,combined with activites that promote collaborative learning, can be greatfor increasing listening, writing, and speaking abilities. I find thathaving students do dictations in pairs is a lot of fun and gets enthusiasticresponses from students. I think they even learn some language from it, too!
Has anyone tried having students dictate part of their own writing to theirpeers in a class? I am thinking of trying this, but am a little wary. I'dlike to hear ideas from netters.
Peace,Anthea Tillyer City University of New York [email protected]**********************************************************************Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1993From: Thomas Nixon <[email protected]>Subject: Dictation
I think Anthea's idea of having one student dictate to the classcertainly has merit. Not everybody our students listen to will speakperfectly correct standard American English. I think, though, that Iwould be selective about which student(s) I chose. Some of ourstudents are certainly more difficult to understand than others.
tom--Thomas NixonAmerican English InstituteCalifornia State UniversityFresno, CA 93740
[email protected]**********************************************************************Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1993From: Susan Gaer <[email protected]>
I use dications as well. Sometimes I review sentences we have studiedpreviously. Sometimes I ask a question and have the students write the answerand sometimes I say the answer and have the students write the question. Thestudents love dication and so I do it. How do others feel?**********************************************************************Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993From: "Lilliam Hurst [C.I.P.]" <[email protected]>
I sometimes use dictation in the Language Lab - *self-dictation*, or avariation of it. I have the students repeat sentences after me, butI only record the sentence THEY say. Then I scramble the students aroundso that they have the dictation as given by one of their peers. Theycan pause, repeat, whatever - but only for a given time, which I haveannounced. There is quite a bit of giggling, I see some shocked faces,but then they realize that what THEY said could - just possibly - soundjust as bizarre to their classmate. I find it very educational.I teach English as an L3 (they have French as L1, and their first L2 isGerman).In answer to Anthea's question, I haven't tried having the studentsdictate their OWN writing, but it's a good idea.Cheerio,Lilliam<[email protected]> Centre Informatique Pedagogique Geneva, CH**********************************************************************Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993From: Marcia Frank <[email protected]>
I usually use dictation at the beginning of the year to assess students'abilities and help me locate any blatant problems. I usually use a sentenceor two from a text we have already read. Then I have the students checkthemselves by comparing what they've written with the text or have them checkeach other. Then I go over what they've done. It is sometimes instructive tosee what they can't catch either from the dictation or from the text.I agree that it would be interesting to have a student do the dictating butI'd pick a better student.Marcia FrankHebrew University of Jerusalem**********************************************************************Date: Thu, 02 Dec 93From: Susan Simon <STSCC@CUNYVM>
It's true that students love dictations. Their level of absorption andexcitment has often surprised me. What is going on during a dictation? Myguess is that for some who write the dictation easily, it's a feeling ofprowess, a sort of flexing the mental muscles. For others, it strengthensthe L2 monitor. For students who learn best aurally, it's productive practicein translating sounds to writing. Other possibilities?
Dictations can be used for many purposes, but I think it's important that bothteacher and students know what the purpose is at the onset. Then there's thematter of correction.....and for this reason, I always use slip dictations:
Students are given a piece of paper, essentially the answer sheet, whichthey are not supposed to peek at, with something like the following:
1. ____________________________________________________Did you call her?
2._______________________________________________________Did he call them?
3. ______________________________________________________Where did she eat?
Students hide the "answers" with another sheet of paper, listen to theteacher reading a sentence, write on the blank like whatever they hear,and slide the cover paper down to compare. This instant feedbackdoes a magically speedy job of teaching whatever the content of thedictation is. (The example above is for pronunciation reductions inrapid speech. For the whole lesson, you can give them a run-downof the reductions beforehand if they are a beginning class, or let themdeduce the patterns themselves afterwards.)
This type of dictation is also a good self-correcting exercise for quickgrammar drills that require transformation. The teacher can read a positivesentence and the students change it to negative, or present tense to past.It also works well for spelling, or for advanced grammar patterns thatthe students are not really ready for but have to learn for a test.The only pitfalls are that before they see how it works, some studentswill write their sentences on the cover sheet instead of on the line, andsome will not see errors in their sentences when they compare the typedsentence with their own. You can walk around and look over shoulders to check,but most students are motivated by the challenge and the self-correctionto be careful.Susan Simon stscc@cunyvm**********************************************************************Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993From: [email protected]
I've used short (three to four sentences) dictations with cultural content(explanation of a holiday, news item, biography, etc. from newspaper orencyclopedia), and always ask two students to write their dictations atthe board. Sometimes I hand out copies of the larger passage to usefor correcting, and we then treat this as a reading exercoseexercise. Faye Stylianopoulos ([email protected])**********************************************************************Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993From: [email protected]
Dear Anthea,
I agree with you - I think some types of dictation work are helpful.I've found a lot of great ideas in Alan Maley's book on dictation(called just that) from Cambridge University press. Lots ofways to give a new, more useful twist to an old technique!
greta vollmer
**********************************************************************Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993From: Gwyn Williams <[email protected]>
I do use dictations occasionally in class. I tell my students I'm goingto give them a "speed dictation". I'm going to read a short text (2paragraphs) at NORMAL speed. They are to write down as much as they canand leave blanks for what they miss. I repeat the dictation 3-4 times.I then have students come up and write one sentence on the board, blanksand all. They are a bit shy at first, but this soon wears off as they seethat everyone has missed out parts.When the last student has sat down again, I ask them to look at the boardand make any changes. I hand out 2 or 3 markers/chalk so no-one feelspicked on.I read the text again and ask for further corrections. I then underlineany mistakes and ask students to make more changes.Students enjoy this activity greatly. Teamwork and co-operation isemphasized. They have time to think and make their own changes.I do it this way for several reasons. I find Thai students do not rereadtheir own writings to proofread and edit. This activity introduces them tothis concept. It focuses them on the main words of the text and allowsthem to fill in the gaps later (unstressed elements such as pronouns,prepositions, conjunctions, endings, etc). I do this because studentsalways leave these out. These mistakes are avoidable mistakes (back toediting again). And it demonstrates to students that they can get themeaning of the text without having to focus on very word.
GwynBangkok<[email protected]>**********************************************************************Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993From: CHARLES SANDY <[email protected]>
I always thought of dictations as something dry, diognostic, and, well, tediousuntil I saw Mario Rinvolucri present on the topic at JALT several years back.He showed how the old A/L stand-by could be communicative AND fun while stillmaintaining the very real benefits of the dictation task.
Among his ideas were 'questionnaire dictations' in which the T dictates fiveor so thought provoking questions (i.e. When you dress in the morning, what doyou put on first?) around a theme, has the Ss check with each other foraccuracy, has a pair of Ss add two or so questions of their own and then dictatethese to another pair, and then has pairs/small groups ask and answer thequestions before the whole class comes together for a discussion. Very nice.Dictations are now part and parcel of my bag o' tricks.
All of Mario Rinvolucri's ideas on dictation are presented in the wonderfulbook from Cambridge University Press, entitled, oddly enough, 'Dictation.'Pick it up if you're interested in the topic. It's a wonderful book.
Chuck SandyFairmont State College**********************************************************************Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1993From: Thomas Nixon <[email protected]>
Subject: DICTATION (Davis & Rinvolucri)
During the discussion regarding dictation in the classroom, the bookbelow was mentioned. It is available from Cambridge University Press,or from ALTA Book Center for the paltry sum of $12.95. ALTA's numberis (800) ALTA\ESL. I included the blurb from the catalog. I think Iwill probably pick it up. And no, I don't work for ALTA. Gee,though, if enough of you bought it, maybe they'd pay me a commission.Hmmm...
Davis, Paul and Rinvolucri. "DICTATION: New Methods, NewPossibilities"
This book offers a wealth of new techniques to extend thelanguage-learning activity of dictation. The authors present somethought-provoking answers to such apparently simple questions as "Whodictates? Who corrects? What and how do they correct?"No. 0-521-34819-6
tom--Thomas NixonAmerican English InstituteCalifornia State UniversityFresno, CA [email protected]**********************************************************************Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993From: Alan Tom <[email protected]>
I've also found dictation useful. A few years ago I was teaching middleschool ESL to beginning students, many of whom were not literate in L1. Iwrote most of the words in the dictation (the number depended on thedifficulty) on the board in random order. Those who wanted to could useit but others chose not to. They also liked drawing from dictation. Ioften use dictations with blanks in them, sometimes just leaving outnumbers and at other times leaving out words which appeared previously inthe dictation. With a class with huge differences in level, the samedictation can be used for all with differing levels of support. For moreadvanced students I like to dictate the first few sentences of a storythey are about to read to give them a chance to predict its content.After the class has read a story, sentences which tell the main events canbe dictated in random order for the students to then put in order. AbbieTom, Chapel Hill, NC**********************************************************************Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993From: Margaret E Sokolik <[email protected]>
One of my colleagues has her students lead dictation, andalso choose the passage. I believe the dictations are relatedin content to whatever reading they are doing at the time.She really believes in the utility of dictations andreports that her students enjoy it to. She uses them asa sort of "warm up" at the beginning of her writing class,and they read each other's work.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Maggi Sokolik, [email protected]
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =**********************************************************************Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993From: Gwyn Williams <[email protected]>
Something I do for a change is to put students in pairs and give one ofthem a short text. This text has been carefull written by yours truly tocontain as many sound ambiquities (possible minimal pair confusions) as Ican think of, eg., "I walked round the corner and saw the men sitting onthe shares" (can be mispronounced/misheard as "chairs" by Thais). Thestudent dictates this to her partner. I limit the time to restrict thenumber of repetitions.I collect the dictations and mark them. Marks are of the person readingthe text. Students like it.
GwynBangkok<[email protected]>**********************************************************************Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993From: [email protected]
With reference to having students read dictations to other students, someof you commented that you'd choose the student carefully so that s/he couldbe understood. But occasionally it can be very effective to pair off thewhole class and have each student dictate to a partner. The purpose ofthis is to make each one aware of their own pronunciation. Here's how Iset it up:
I write a short paragraph or dialogue--four to six sentences max. Then Itype it like this:
Student A's paper:
(Two or three sentences to dictate to Student B)
(Below that, a blank space for Student A to write as Student B dictates)
Student B's paper:
(Enough blank space to write as Student A dictates)
(Two or three sentences to dictate to Student A)
This works best if pairs of students have different L1s. Checking theirwork is easy because one member of each pair has the answers typed.
I don't do this often--maybe toward the beginning of the term, around the
middle, and toward the end.
Martha LowAmerican English InstituteUniversity of OregonEugene, Oregon [email protected]**********************************************************************Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993From: "Thomas Riedmiller Anglistik u. Amerikanistik (USA)"<[email protected]>
I used a little dictation exercise to see if students could hear theslight differences in intonation with restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses.It was as great way to introduce the topic and it helped me see how muchtime I was going to have to invest on this topic.
just my two cents....er.. two pfennigs worth.. :-)
Tom RiedmillerTechnische Universitaet DresdenDresden, Germany**********************************************************************Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993From: Robert Weissberg <[email protected]>
Student-led dictation has worked well for me. I like it because itproduces lots of student-generated conversational repair: requests forrepetition, clarification, confirmation from class members who haddifficulty understanding some portion of the dictation. It can sometimesresult in an impromptu, student-initiated error analysis session.
Also useful, and perhaps a more "natural" type of exercise, are student-leddicto-comps.
Of course Th. Nixon is right; one wouldn't want to put a particularly weakstudent on the spot. Best reason of all for student dictations: it getssomeone else up in front of the class besides me!**********************************************************************Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993From: Margaret Gamez <[email protected]>
Re: Anthea's question about dictations:I personally HATE dictations, primarily because I hated them in my ownlanguage learning experience. My students, however, LOVE them. My bosslikes them too. So I do them. I hate them because they are boring, andbecause some people just don't write fast.Anyway - I've developed a couple of different dictation activities1 - Dictate questions and have the students write the question then write theanswers. i have the students volunteer to write the questions and answers onthe board, and then they suggest the corrections.2 - Straight dictation from something they've already studied - a reading ora dialogue. Then the students look it up at home and make their owncorrections.3 - Have a student read the dictation. (I do try to pick a better student)
4 - Dictate a dialogue or something similar, then have the students dictateit back to me - I write it on the board as they dictate it. They makecorrections of the mistakes as I write.
Anyway - as i said, I hate dictations, but this is how i do them once a week,like it or not.Margaret [email protected]
**********************************************************************Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993From: Mark Warschauer WARSCHAU@CSEARN
I'm surprised no one's mentioned yet the technique called "GrammarTranslation", described more fully in a book of the same namewritten by Ruth Wajnryb and published by Oxford University Press (1990).Basically, it works like this. First, the teacher prepares a shortdictation (4-6 sentences) which includes several examples of a particulargrammatical structure that the class has been working on. (Often youcan adapt a news story for the dictation). Before reading thedictation, the teacher lets the students get into small groups andeach groups picks a "secretary".The teacher then introduces the topic (and perhaps some specialvocabulary) of the dictation, and tells the students how many sentencesare in in. Then the teacher reads the dictation twice, at normalspeaking speed (similar to the technique described by Gwyn Williamsearlier. While the teacher is reading, every member of every groupscribbles frantically as many key words as they can. Afterwards,each group attempts to reconstruct the text, with the secretarieswriting it down (on paper or on transparencies.) The goal is toreconstruct something which is faithful to the content and grammaticallycorrect. Meanwhile, the teacher circulates and helps people correcterrors which are not central to the main grammar point of the lesson.Finally, each group displays their work on the blackboard or overhead,either all at once or one sentence at a time. The purpose of all thisis to see if the correctly produce in writing the grammatical structureunder consideration (which, if the dictation has been designed correctly,should show up several times).There, I think that's clear!
Mark Warschauer, Charles University, [email protected]**********************************************************************Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993From: Anthea Tillyer <[email protected]>
How encouraging to read that several other teachers use and experiment withdictation! And thanks to all those who recommended the book "Dictation"by Rinvoluccri (et al.?)....I really must get that.
But what was REALLY provocative was Susan Simon's musing on "what exactlyis going on" when students are doing a dictation. Obviously, there is auralpractice, and writing practice. But then there is also that ill-defined,but essential activity of trying to make sense out of words that one doesnot recognize. It is this last - trying to create meaning from chaos - thatI have found most useful when I myself have learned languages and I guess
it is this aspect of dictation that I most value.
I, like Gwyn Williams and Susan, often have my students collaborate indoing a dictation. In fact, it is often a team sport in my classes (andsometimes a pretty bloody one, too!). This technique introduces speakingand negotiation into what is going on here.
I mentioned in a past posting on this topic that I was thinking of havingstudents dictate their own material. The answers were interesting. Iplan to try it tomorrow and will - with the group's indulgence - report onmy "findings". What I plan is 5 groups of 5 students. (No prizes for guessinghow many students in my class) Each person will explain the topic of thepiece - their own piece - that they propose to read, and then the group willselect the one they would like to hear as a dictation.
Ah, yes, and I don't plan to correct any of the errors in the writing aheadof time; as I plan it now, each student will read his/her piece with all itswarts and imperfections on its head....and the group can work on them later.
I'll let you all know!Peace,Anthea Tillyer City University of New York [email protected]**********************************************************************Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1993From: Rick Spencer <[email protected]>
The following is from
Ling, Sue. (1986) "Talk-Write in the Composing Process:from Prewriting to Writing." TESL Canada Journal Vol 1,No. 4, 55-67.
Students in the class are paired by themselves, or withtheir teacher's help, if there is a benefit in intervening.One student in each pair is the "talker" by choice, and thepartner is the "writer" for that particular compositionperiod/session, which may be 30-45 minutes. The talkerstell "tales" of their own choice (from their experience orreading), while their partners listen, asking forclarification whenever necessary, as in a conversation.Once the oral/vocal act is over, the listeners set outto capture the tale in writing, using the first-personnarrative, for two reasons: one, Talk-Write is a means ofensuring that something concrete (in the form of draft 1)gets back to the talker, based on his/her content, and twoin the rewriting segment of teaching writing as a process,the talker has to revise draft 1 into a fully developed andcomposed product, a piece of formal writing.
(end quote)
This is where language experience meets process writing.There are lots of possible variations. I think it's a powerfultechnique.
Rick**********************************************************************Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1993From: Michael Feldman <[email protected]>
I wholeheartedly agree with Anthea on the value of dictationsin the ESL classroom. What simpler way to integrate listeningand writing? In my opinion it is a much more exact and usefulmeasure of listening comprehension than the taped multi-choiceapproach of the TOEFL and other standardized tests. An exper-ienced evaluator can analyze responses and separate phonetic,grammatical, interference and other sources of errors. I thinkthat the 'bad rap' which has been hung on dictation comes fromdiscredited methodology which relied completely on dictation,and the logical premise that anything that simple must beworthless. However, it works.
Michael Feldman Boston University**********************************************************************Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1993From: James Keeler <[email protected]>
I think that if dictation is to be used it should be as part of a task inwhich dictation is necessary. Eg. in correction, checking to see ifsomeone has correctly copied the contents of a want-ad. Addresses over thetelephone, etc.**********************************************************************Date: Mon, 13 Nov 1995From: Kenneth Neil <[email protected]>Subject: Oldies but Goodies
Anthea asked for old, good techniques. Here's one: the cooperativedictation.After finishing a lesson, discussion, etc. write 2-3 sentenceswhich summarized the content. Divide the class into groups and thendictate the summary. Read through the dictation at regularconversational speed for the level of the students, but withoutartificial breaks as with ordinary dictations. Pause to give groups achance to compare notes and help each other out before repeating.Dictate the summary 3 or 4 times giving them processing time after eachdictation. Then give them the summary. An overhead works well since itis instantaneous. There is plenty of room for discussion as they try toremember word-for-word the longer piece as well as the necessity ofnegotiating spelling and punctuation. Since the content is significant,the time spent on the exercise helps to reinforce the lesson and thosestudents with a better grasp of the content can use that knowledge tohelp their group, even if their language is weaker, as the strongerlingusitically can help them.
Ken NeilWinnipeg, Canada"We Stand in Snow and Freeze"**********************************************************************Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997From: "Robert J. Dickey" <[email protected]>
On Tue, 21 Jan 1997, Robert Baldwin asked for feed back>as to how they use dictation in their classes. <snip>>Among the points I plan to raise are (1) dictation can be used at any>level for any skill and (2) affectively, dictation gives Ss a sense of>"ownership" of English and active participation in the learning of the>language.Just last week we used song dictation in my "high beginners" class. Iselected Michael Jackson's "I'll be there" because the vocabulary is not toostrange, pronunciation and enunciation is reasonable, words are not coveredby instrumentation, and M.Jackson is a continuing pop figure. Equallyimportant to all of the above, the cassette is available here in Korea!Students' voices controlled the tape-player. They worked separately,then worked together after each stanza to put the words on the board. Atthe end of the task, there were only 6 corrections. Nearly all "new"vocabulary was known by one student or another, and they enjoyed teachingeach other the words, the sounds, and the connotations of the words andphrases. A VERY successful 45 minutes!
Robert Dickey, Miryang University S. KOREAe-mail: [email protected]**********************************************************************THREAD ON CLOZE VS DICATION IN THIS MONTHDate: Wed, 12 Apr 1995From: Naomi Migliacci <[email protected]>Subject: More on dictation
Hello All,
I've been interested in the discussion on cloze and dictation,never having been a fan of either one when I was studying anotherlanguage.
I do something a little bit different with my students. I startwith one paragraph (simple for lower level students and morechallenging paragraphs for the more advanced levels) and we workup to 3 paragraphs.
I read the paragraph and the students listen. Next, I read theparagraph and the students take notes. Then the studentsreconstruct the content of the paragraph in their own words.Usually, this activity contains vocab or content that we havebeen working on in class. With 3 paragraphs students need touse transitions, understand intros and conclusions. They enjoythe activity and find it useful for listening and note taking.
Does anyone else do something like this?
Naomi MigliacciPitzer College, Claremont, [email protected]***********************************************************************Date: Thu, 13 Apr 1995From: Margo de Wolf <[email protected]>Organization: James Boswell InstituutSubject: grammar dictation or dictogloss
Dear all,
Here are my two cents to the thread on dictation. Having readNaomi's Migliacci's posting on her dictation method, I reached out tomy bookshelves and picked out Grammar Dictation by Ruth Wajnryb(Oxford University Press - ISBN 0-19-437004-6). Apparently,grammar dictation or dictogloss is a fairly recent task-based procedure "designed to help students towards a betterunderstanding of how grammar works on a text basis. It is designed toexpose where their language-learner shortcomings (and needs) are, sothat teaching can be directed more precisely towards these areas. Inthis sense it is eminently learner-needs based."There are three stages to the procedure: 1. Listening (where theteacher dictates a short text at normal speed and learners jot downkey words); 2. Text reconstruction (where students in small groupspool their resources to reconstruct a version of the text, aiming atgrammatical accuracy, textual cohesion and logical sense); 3.Analysis and correction.I haven't used this procedure myself yet, but it seems worthexploring. In addition to a description of the procedure, thebook contains 60 texts at various levels for use in dictoglosslessons. I would be interested to hear if anyone out there has usedthis procedure.
Cheers,Margo de WolfJames Boswell Instituut / Universiteit UtrechtThe Netherlands***********************************************************************Date: Thu, 13 Apr 1995From: Greta Vollmer <[email protected]>Subject: Re: grammar dictation or dictogloss
I use dictogloss on a regular basis (by that, I meanonce or twice a month) and am pleased with the results.The students (I teach high school) like the "game"feel it has and as I walk around, I hear a lot oftalk about grammar and surface features going on;the kinds of things I want them to be looking forin their own papers. I've never actually tapedand analyzed a group working, so I don't know what'shappening in groups of mixed levels(i.e. is theresome room for contribution of lower level students,or are the higher proficiency students dominating thereconstruction?)
Greta [email protected]***********************************************************************Date: Thu, 13 Apr 1995From: Suzanne ElRayess <[email protected]>Subject: Grammar Dictation Book
Margo asks if anyone has used this text. Yes, several of my colleagues and Ihave used it over and over again for the past 2 semesters. It is great!Students love it! However, it is crucial to read carefully the introduction and
the suggested ways to use the book. It is not teaching grammar. You don't picka grammar point to build a lesson on and then look for the lesson in this bookthat might contain a particular point. Success with using the book comes byunderstanding the author's very careful presentation. Some of the added plusesare: increased training for students in team work, small group workincreased student time on language; less teacher talkgood models to help teachers generate their own examples of "grammardictation;" I created several about holidays, for example, andother topics of particular interest to specific students.This is certainly one of my favorite books, especially as it crosses a numberof levels.SuzanneSuzanne El Rayess Monroe Community CollegeESOL [email protected]***********************************************************************Date: Fri, 9 Jun 1995From: Susan Simon <[email protected]>Subject: learning styles in the classroom
For the teacher, the labels auditory, visual, kinesthetic help us rememberthe importance of using more than words on a page or on the blackboard. Goodvisuals - photos, charts, diagrams, video - make learning more fun andmemorable for most students and are essential for some students to rememberat all. Pronunciation practice, dictations, and discussion comprise thenormal auditory part of most ESL/EFL classrooms, but this can be extended withsongs and other music. Most of us probably use fewer kinesthetic techniques,but would you teach the difference between 'in' and 'into' without some kindof motion? I haven't read all the learned research sources, but I think thepoint of these labels is not to get into the rut of using only textbooks andtext handouts.
For the student, the different learning styles can help explain why somestudents learn a lot of language 'on the street' but don't make much progressin academic settings, and a discussion of techniques that fit the variouslearning styles can give students a wider repertoire of study methods.
Susan Simon stscc@cunyvm City University of New York***********************************************************************Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>Subject: dictogloss
well comradesi got a load of responses when i asked if anyone was interested in findingout about dictogloss. here is a text and instructions. let meacknowledge again dr ruth wynryb who has written books on this and taughtme about it. her books on it are: grammar workout (1&2). what you havebelow is my own work as written out for the place where i work: i.l.c.,university of technology, sydney.this was written for a pre-intermediate class and i wrote a morecomplex one on the same for an intermediate class. the whole activitygoes for an hour to hour and a half derpending on steps vii, vii and x.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.1. Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta,
U.S.A.2. He led non-violent protests against racial discrimination and theVietnam War.3. In 1964, King won the Nobel Peace Prize.4. Only four years later he was shot and killed.5. His dream is still remembered and his birthday is now a U.S.public holiday.(N.B. Stevie Wonder's "Happy Birthday", from Hotter than July, can be donewith this.)INSTRUCTIONS:i Explain task/activity to Ss.ii Read once at story telling speed (not like a dictation). Ss mustnot write during this reading.iii Ask comprehension questions to ascertain that Ss have understoodthe story and have no vocabulary difficulties. T elicits questions fromthem.iv Instruct Ss to get ready to make notes on the important elementsof the story, i.e. content and grammar, while you read it at about thesame speed as before. Tell them that it will be impossible to write downevery word, and that they should keep up with the sentence you arereading. It is a good idea for them to write 1-5 down the margin of theirpage first. Make sure Ss realise that this will be the final reading.v Now read the passage at a similar speed to the first time with a4-5 second pause between each sentence. Say the number for each sentenceto assist Ss in keeping up. Ss take notes.vi When reading is finished, T is silent to give Ss 2 minutes toquietly fix up their notes.vii Put Ss in groups of 3-5 (3 groups in total work well). Each groupchooses a secretary and puts together a group rendering of the story. Thegrammar can be changed, but must be correct. The story should be completeand unchanged.viii When Ss are roughly finished (about 15mins) groups can swapversions to swap ideas.ix After a few more minutes to make any last changes, they write uptheir groups version on the board, or on a transparency, with all thefirst sentences next to each other, and all the second, etc.x T goes through differences between the versions eliciting andgiving corrections.There is usually no need to refer to the original and T should not giveSs a copy of the original or show it to them.
hope this helps. feel free to write and ask me more or about myexperiences with it. n.b. my spelling of dictogloss is correct.sorry this is so long but there was no short way to do it.
grumpy georgesydney, [email protected]***********************************************************************Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997From: Mark Richards <[email protected]>Subject: Cooperative Dictation
I stumbled on this idea today as an alternative dictation and mystudents loved it, so I thought I would mention it here. It is based ona cooperative learning model. I had a large group (22) and so separated
students into groups of four and two groups of five. They had twentyminutes to prepare each other for a dictation (in this case a list offifteen verbs, past and present). I then put five desks in the front ofthe classroom with a strip of paper on each for the dictation. Arepresentative from each group came up and I dictated one word. As soonas they had written it down they ran back to their seats. The nextstudents came up and I dictated the second word and then the third andso on. At the end, I gave a score to each group and the highest scoringgroup won the applause of the class. I will repeat the activity nextweek with the same groups. The idea is that everyone in the group has aninvestment in seeing that they all learn the material.--
Mark RichardsMontreal, [email protected]***********************************************************************Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997From: Anthea Tillyer <[email protected]>Subject: Using music
I use the following technique with musical "dictations"...much to thedelight of students and (I hope) to their linguistic advantage.
First, I never give students blank-filling to do with songs. I just playthe song over and over again, usually without pauses, until the students havefinally managed to get most of it in shape. The "twist" is that each timeI play it, they swap papers with a classmate, each time a different classmate,and work on the OTHER student's/s' version. Each paper gets passed around5 or so times before I finally take pity on them and let them see the lyrics.Sometimes, I let them look at the lyrics, but not write anything at all ontheir own dictation papers or their friends'. they usually get about fiveminutes to look at and study the words, then they put away the song sheets andwork collaboratively with anyone who is around on "cleaning up" their owndictation papers and their friends'. They'll need to listen to the song againduring this period when they are trying to reconstruct the song on their paperswithout the benefit of the song sheet. Students have a lot of fun with thisbecause they not only get a song, but they get a tantilizing challenge ofbeing able to look at the words of the song and then not look at them.
Finally, the students get to look at the song sheet AND write on their ownpapers to make corrections.
Any variation of dictation techniques can be used with songs, and all ofthem are popular with students. At least, my experience has shown me thatstudents enjoy and benefit from these kinds of activities.
Anthea Tillyer City University of New York [email protected]************************************************************************Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1997From: Anthea Tillyer <[email protected]>Subject: Dictation game
Here's a variation on dictations. But here's a caution, be careful thatstudents don't knock down the dean who is walking in the hall as students
come flying out of the classroom in pursuit of perfection.
In advance of the class, prepare as many short dications (of 5 or 6 sentences)as you will need to cover you class in groups of 5 or 6. The dictations shouldpreferably be related to some topic that the class is studying, or containsome grammar point that needs to be practiced. Each group should have adifferent dication and each dictation should be clearly numbered. Thedictations should be similar in length and difficulty level.
1. Divide the class into group of 5 or 6, if possible.
2. Assign a number to each group. The numbered dictations that you prepared inadvance will be assigned to the groups by number (dictation #1 to group #1etc.) But, DON'T SHOW THE GROUPS THEIR DICTATION!
3. Explain that you will be outside the door and that a member of each groupwill have to come out and receive - orally - the dication. The groupmember listens to you dictate the sentence and then goes back and REDICTATESit to his/her group. Each member writes it down, and so does the person who"delivered" the sentence to the group. Each member of the group has towrite the whole dictation and each person has to go out of the room to pickup a sentence for their group. Explain that this is a RACE. The groupthat comes up first with the correctly-reconstructed dictation wins!
4. When everyone in the group has written the sentence that is dictated tothem, AMOTHER member comes out to pick up another sentence, and so on.
5. When all the sentences have been delivered, groups can have 5 minutes (orso) to collaborate on refining their "pdouct". First group to turn inone complete correct dictation (or reasonable fascimile thereof) win!
Caveats: a. This is a noisy exercise, very noisy!b. Be careful to dictate the right sentences to the right group!Keep track of the numbers
An alternate way to the teacher dictating sentence by sentence is to havenumbered pads with numbered sentences. Group members can READ the sentencesand then deliver them to their group - orally, of course!
Anthea Tillyer City University of New York [email protected]************************************************************************Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998From: Anthea Tillyer <[email protected]>Subject: Musical dictations
I believe in dictations! I think they develop and practise many languageskills.
One activity I have found very successful is to play MUSICAL dictations. Inthis activity, the teacher plays a piece of vocal music all the way throughone time, and students just listen or else write down any words at all thatthey can remember from it, in any order. Students can then "dictate" thewords they remember back to the teacher to write on the board (in any order),or to a strong student who feels confident enough to do the task. Of course,students can come up and write their own words on the board, but this tends totake ages. By the way, the teacher should NOT "prep" the students with
"difficult" vocabulary...let them work it out!
Then the teacher plays the music again, and again makes no pauses or stops andplays the piece all the way through. A class can then repeat the boardactivity or work in groups to see how much more sense they have made out ofthe piece during the second (or third) listening, and how much they canprogress by working collaboratively.
Play the music again - no stops, no pauses. Then the class can do the groupactivity, or the board activity, or pass their paper to the person on theirright to fill in blanks on THAT paper. If the students swap papers, theywill be their neighbor's paper's keeper for the next play of the music, fillingin missing words.
It is astonishing how even the lowest levels can almost always put the wholething together in the end, with minimal help. They can listen carefully tothe SOUND of the words and try to write them even if they don't understandthem at first. Eventually, each group will put it all together with about95% accuracy.
I find that Elton John is very good for this activity because he sings soclearly and has interesting content. Paticularly popular are the PrincessDiana version of "Candle in the Wind", "You'll be Blessed", and "The Way YouLook Tonight". An added bonus is that each of these songs have a "history",which many of the students already know, or partly know, and so an energeticdiscussion often ensues.
I almost forgot - the "prize" is that students and teacher get to sing at theend, of course!
Anthea Tillyer City University of New York [email protected]************************************************************************
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998From: Brea Barthel <[email protected]>Subject: musical dictation
Thanks, Anthea, for a great note on having students transcribesong lyrics. A slight variation on your approach that's worked wellin my classes is to have small groups (2-3) each take a sectionof the board, with each group trying to write out the lyrics of onestanza of the song. I play the song a couple times, cuing each group onwhen their stanza begins, then play again as they try to write it out.At the end of the song, and after a few minutes of small-group discussion,usually someone says their group got "the hard" words. Groups rotate oneboard left, and try to fill in blanks in the first draft. Then everyoneereviews the whole set, suggesting corrections (or funny revisions).At this point I hand out a glossary of unusual terms in the song,we listen to the song again, and students revise once more, usually whilehumming along.
The song I've used (at a friend's suggestion) that works well is "The Piano Man"
by Billy Joel. We usually spin into discussions of alcohol in Americansociety, proper behavior when dining out, and other related topics.A nice follow-up session is to discuss the differences among
dictionaries, glossaries, buzzwords, and such.
Brea [email protected]***************************************************************************
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998From: Kevin Stoda <[email protected]>Subject: Musical dictation
Anthea T. talked about musical dictation and the joy of singing after atext was completed. I agree that this is a wonderful way of (1) motivatingstudents and (2) extending a task to a multilevel classroom where allstudents can help each other comprehend a text which even native speakerstake several times to grasp.
In short the results have been amazing. Most recently my advanced classeshave been able to handle accurately 80-90% or more of the text from HOTELCALIFORNIA by the Eagles in about 3 tries. I, however, tend to play thesong in random chunks of 2 to 7 lines. Chunking allows the students to seesentences and maybe even paragraphs forming. The pause between the chunksallows students time to write and reflect upon context and to make guessesabout what they have heard.
Depending on the class, we do sing the text once it has been written on theboard, overhead, or photocopied in its entirety.
Warning: This sort of advanced dictation is not suggested until you haveworked with students on lower level activities such as fill-in-the blanks,summarizing, etc.Kevin A. Stoda Tel. [email protected]://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/3533***************************************************************************Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999From: Eileen Roesler <[email protected]>Subject: Re: Dictation
One more thought on the value of dictation: I have noticed when I dodictation exercises with either non-native speakers (usually at theintermediate level) or native speakers (say, high school sophomores) thatthe "interactive" nature of the activity helps to create a certain kind ofbonding between teacher and students. One person commented that theexercise causes the student to focus and to listen intently, whichcertainly forms the basis for a person-to-person bond where information iscoming from one person's brain (the teacher who is reading words orally)through the medium of speech into another person's brain (the student whois listening). Along with this information transmission, there is alsowhat might be called an affective transmission as well. Those who havedone dictation can probably attest that there is a much higher rate of eyecontact during dictation and (mysteriously) more smiling on the part ofboth the teacher and the student. What's more, when all is said and done,both teacher and students seem to have an unexplainable sense ofaccomplishment, a sort of "Hey, Mom! Look at what I can do!" feeling,which serves to develop the kind of rapport that we all long to cultivatewith our students. I can't really explain why this happens, but Icertainly know it does happen. Perhaps someone with a background in
psycholinguists could offer an explanation.
Eileen RoeslerIntensive English Language CenterWichita State University, Wichita, KS, [email protected]***********************************************************
Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999From: Russell P Staub <[email protected]>Subject: Dictation
I, too, have resurrected dictation from pedagogical obscurity. I teach agroup of Spanish-speakers at the intermediate level of an adult ESLprogram. I spend a lot of time developing their aural comprehension ofsmaller units, focusing often on reduction problems that are complicatedby L1 vs. L2 grammatical and phonological differences. Forexample, we were working on understanding and producing sentences in thepresent perfect instead of the present in examples such as these:
1. I've been a welder for 8 years.2. She's lived here since 1995.
Although students have heard such sentences again and again in and out ofmy class, their ability to identify individual words in such utterancesis very weak, and, consequently, their production reverts back to theirL1 habit of using just the present tense. Part of this weakness is dueto phonological transfer. In #1, students can't hear the /v/ in "I've"because of it's adjacency to /b/ (Spanish has no such distinction.)After working with the present perfect on paper, however, a dictation ofsuch sentences forces students to "look for" and "hear" the /v/ whichhad eluded them before. This is, in my opinion, a first step towardsmore competent production of both "v" and the present perfect.With #2, a dictation subsequent to a little grammatical work forcesstudents to distinguish between "is" and the less familiar "has",hopefully with positive effects on production as well.
I haven't used dictation for much else, but I find it indispensible inteaching phenomena such as these.
Russell StaubCSU Sacramento, California USAGalt Adult [email protected]*************************************************************END
