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Dictations
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A dictation is a listening activity where you read or play a listening passage and students transcribe what they hear.  

 

Purpose of Dictation
Dictations teach students to listen carefully and to correctly interpret what they hear. They usually listen to a passage several times.  Not only do dictations help students improve their listening skills, they also help students improve their reading, writing, and speaking skills.  In addition, students become more attentive to accuracy after seeing the kinds of mistakes they have made. 

I like dictations because they:

  • Allow me to easily check whether students have read an assigned story, learned new vocabulary, or have completed their work. 
  • Draw attention to sound-letter correspondences.
  • Improve spelling.
  • Make it easy to measure how much the students heard and understood. 
  • Provide writing practice

During a dictation, students listen for specific information such as:

  • Adjective agreement
  • Articles
  • Correct spelling
  • Correctly structured sentence
  • Gender
  • Noun
  • Number
  • Sounds
  • Verb agreement 
  • Verb tense

 

Guidelines for Dictations

  • Speak clearly and at first slowly.
  • Use familiar words and forms, especially at the beginning level.  Build the dictation around a familiar context.  This builds early confidence and paves the road for more difficult dictations later on.  
  • Keep dictations short.  They should contain ten sentences or less and no more than seven words per sentence. 
  • Students must use a pencil so they can erase mistakes.  Instruct students to refrain from erasing during the dictation or while writing because they need full concentration until they finish writing the sentence.  If there is an error, students should cross it out.  They can make their paper neat later.
  • When correcting dictations students:
  • Turn them in for you to grade.
  • Look up the answers as a self-check before turning in their paper.
  • Write the answers on the board for correction. 
  • Self-correct their papers from the correct version that you posted.
  • Read out their dictations to the class while you check for errors.
  • Grade dictations easily. They should count enough so that students make an effort and try their best.  Just remember that dictations cause some students a lot of anxiety. 

Dictation activities
    Creative Partner Dictation
    1. Students create a continuous dialogue, story, poem, letter, etc.
    2. Students pair up and take out one sheet of paper per pair.
    3. Students label a designated number of lines (6-10 depending on level and time) on the paper like this:

    A   (A writes here) 
    B   (B writes here) 
    A   (A writes here) 
    B   (B writes here) 

    1. Students decide who will be A and who will be B.
    2. A writes on line A, and B writes on line B.
    3. B talks first.  Meanwhile A writes down what B says on line A.
    4. A then passes the paper to B, and B writes down what A says.
    5. Afterwards, each group reads aloud their creation to the class.
    6. Alternatively, students can pass their work to the group next to them and read that aloud to each other, and continue passing until each group has read each paper.
    Dictation Relay
    1. Tape the dictation passage to the front of the room.
    2. Divide the class into teams of 4-5 members.
    3. Each team lines up in a row.
    4. The first player from each team runs up and reads a phrase from the board, and dictates the phrase to the first person in line who then writes it down.
    5. The second player then runs up, reads the next phrase, and dictates the second phrase to the next teammate, and so on.   
    6. As a variation, the first student dictates the phrase to the second teammate, who then dictates it to the third teammate and so on until they get to the last person, who then writes down the phrase. 
    General Dictation for Any Type of Text
    1. Read each sentence twice and only twice.
    2. Let students know this from the beginning.  Do not give in!  
    3. Students are only allowed to write after you have completed the sentence the second time.
    4. This will aid in students’ concentration, especially the average and lower students.
    5. Everyone starts writing together after the completion of the second repetition.   
    News Articles
    1. Read aloud a news article. 
    2. Students transcribe the article. 
    3. Students compare their answers in small groups.
    4. Afterwards, provide the article so students can correct their mistakes.
    Partner Messenger Dictation
    1. Divide students into pairs with a Messenger and a Transcriber.
    2. Give the messengers a card with a passage in Spanish or allow them to listen to a recording several times until they memorize it.
    3. The messenger then dictates the passage to the Transcriber. 
    4. The Transcriber writes down what the Messenger says.
    5. The Messenger refrains from spelling out the words or correcting the Transcriber.   
    6. Subtract one point for each mistake.
    Sentences
    1. Read aloud five sentences. 
    2. First read them at a normal speed.
    3. Students listen. 
    4. Second, read them at a slower writing speed. 
    5. Students listen and write.
    6. Third, read them at a normal speed so students can check their work. 
    7. After students have completed all five sentences, they may use their books, notes or homework to check their work. 
    Sound Recognition
    1. Read out sentences with familiar words except for one or two unknown words.
    2. Students transcribe the sentences.
    3. This lets you know whether students can recognize certain words and sounds. 
    Supply the Ending
    1. Hand out a paper with two alternating names running down the left side for students to fill out like this:

      Juan:
      María:
      Juan:
      María:

    2. Dictate a story or dialogue except for the ending.
    3. Students write their own ending.
    4. Afterwards, they read their endings to a partner who must transcribe it. 
    5. Specify a minimum number of sentences, minimum number of verbs used, specific words or phrases to include, etc.
    6. Dictate the first half or more of the conversation.  Be sure to change your voice to distinguish the two characters.
    7. Students complete the conversation.

    Voice Mail Message
    1. Play a voice mail message.
    2. Students listen.
    3. Play the message again.
    4. Students transcribe the message.
    5. Play message a third time so students can check their work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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