Using Dictation

Jo Gakonga

For a free voiced over video presentation of this, visit www.elt-training.com

Why use dictation?

Isn’t it just boring?

NO

WritingSpellingListening

Top Tips

Make it interesting

I am a fruit.

I’m orange but I’m not an orange.

I have seeds but I’m not an apple.

I’m bigger than a pineapple.

You have to cook me before you eat me.

What am I?

Keep it short!

Don’t VerrrOh! N Nun

Sea Ate

Don’t over enunciate

How to dictate?

Types of dictation

Teacher to learner Learner to learner

Independent Collaborative

Teacher dictation

Easy to doTakes little preparation

eg. use instructions or warmers from your course book...

When you left school, did you study, get a job or do something else. Why?

Do you think it was the best thing to do?

OR:

Introduction to reading text

Title spelling dictation

T-H-E-F-A-M-I-L-Y-T-H-A-T-P-L-A-Y-S

Useful for:

Practice in listening for spelling

A E I O U J-G Y Q X Z

From: New Cutting Edge Pre-Intermediate Pearson/Longman

From: New Cutting Edge Pre-Intermediate Pearson/Longman

Useful for:

Intensive listening practiceRaising awareness of connected speech

Adding variety

DictoglossCollaborative dictation

http://www2.klett.de/sixcms/media.php/10/A08105-53990004_EU_Dictogloss_EB.pdf

An Inuit guide

The Arctic Circle

A polar bear

I looked to see what it was,

I kept as still as I could

stick your head out

sure enough

Read it once at normal speed– learners just listen

Read again at normal speed, pausing after each sentence – learners make notes

NOTE: Learners DO NOT write down the whole sentence

In pairs or groups, learners reconstruct the passage

NOTE – this does not have to be the same as the original as long as the meaning is conveyed correctly and accurately.

Learners compare their version with original. Attention can be drawn to the differences.

I was in the Arctic with an Inuit guide, a long way above the Arctic Circle, where I was taking photographs of sealsunderwater. After a few days the weather turned bad and we decided to spend the night on the ice. Early the next morning I was lying in the tent, just waking up, whenI felt something moving against my feet. I looked to see what it was, and I could see the shape of a young polar bear which was playing with my feet through the wall ofthe tent. I kept as still as I could, and very quietly woke the guide and told him what was happening. He said, ‘Don’t worry, just stick your head out of the tent and it will go away.’ So I said. ‘Well, you stick your head out of the tent.’ And that’s exactly what he did – he stuck his head out of the tent, and sure enough the polar bear went away.

Useful for:VocabularyNew vocabulary, Revising vocabularyCollocations, ‘chunks’ and common expressions

Grammar Raising awareness, RevisionAs a context for presentation

Discourse analysis and cohesive devices

Learner dictation

Gives a real reason to make language intelligible –

But…

Alternate/ info gap dictationThe place where I live is a small village called Wythall. There’s not much to do there, really, and when I was a teenager I thought it was boring. Now that I’m older, though and I’ve got a family, I think there’s something nice about the quietness of it. There’s quite a lot of traffic, because there’s little or no public transport, but it’s a rural area, so there’s not much pollution. There are a couple of take away shops, and one or two restaurants around, but mostly if people want to go out and do something, they go to Solihull or Birmingham.

The place where I live is a small village called Wythall. There’s not much to do there, really, and when I was a teenager I thought it was boring. Now that I’m older, though and I’ve got a family, I think there’s something nice about the quietness of it. There’s quite a lot of traffic, because there’s little or no public transport, but it’s a rural area, so there’s not much pollution. There are a couple of take away shops, and one or two restaurants around, but mostly if people want to go out and do something, they go to Solihull or Birmingham.

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The place where I live is a small village called Wythall. There’s not much to do there, really, and when I was a teenager I thought it was boring. Now that I’m older, though and I’ve got a family, I think there’s something nice about the quietness of it. There’s quite a lot of traffic, because there’s little or no public transport, but it’s a rural area, so there’s not much pollution. There are a couple of take away shops, and one or two restaurants around, but mostly if people want to go out and do something, they go to Solihull or Birmingham.

Running dictation

called Alice and she

Once upon a tim

e

there was a girl

lived with her father in

called Alice and she

Once upon a tim

e

there was a girl

lived with her father in

Useful for:

Pronunciation practiceListening practice

Increasing energy level in class

Thank you!

Jo Gakonga