Dictation as a learning task and as an assessment task: is it old-fashioned?

Talking about dictation may sound rather old-fashioned. The image that comes to our minds is that of an authoritarian teacher walking to and fro dictating sentence after sentence to a group of students. However, dictation exercises can be successfully used as learning tasks as well as assessment tasks as long as the following aspects are taken into account: purpose and aim, material, preparation, procedure, delivery, and correction. 

• Purpose and Aim: It is important to be clear about why we want to use dictation in the classroom and what we want to achieve. Why are we going to use dictation? Is it for students to learn something or do we want to assess something that has already been taught? Do we want to assess our students’ ability to recognize sounds and use the correct spelling to represent them? Do we want our students to consolidate vocabulary? Is this dictation task related to any of our expected learning outcomes? Can weI make it more relevant to students by simulating in the classroom a real-life situation in which dictation can be used?

• Material: Careful choice of the material to be used in dictation tasks is essential. If we opt for a text, its length, content, register and style should be appropriate to the level and interests of the students and to our purpose and aim. The text could be authentic, adapted or written by ourselves. If we opt for a picture, we should be careful to choose one that is relevant to our teaching purpose and aims, as well as to our students’ learning context. 

• Preparation: When preparing a text to be dictated, we should decide previously where to break it up so that the meaning and natural speech patterns are not compromised. Marking the text wish slashes or slant bars is a good idea. 

• Procedure: There are several different ways to dictate. Some are listed below.
  

1. Picture dictation

a) The teacher reads a passage and the students draw according to what they hear. Students can compare their drawing with the original picture as well as with their peers’ drawings. 

b) While the students look at a picture, the teacher reads a passage that presents a description of it. However, there are some differences between the passage and the picture. The students have to spot them.

2. Gap dictation

The teacher chooses a passage and deletes some key words. These could be prepositions, verbs or specific vocabulary items. The gapped text is given to the students and the teacher reads the whole passage for them. 

3. Multiple-choice dictation

The teacher gives students a written passage where there are alternatives for some specific words. For example:

The boy slept/is sleeping/will sleep the whole night.

The teacher could ask the students to read and choose the alternatives first and then she would read the passage aloud for the students to check their answers. Notice that, in this type of dictation, the teacher is integrating reading and listening!

4. Mutual dictation

The teacher separates the students into As and Bs. The As receive a written passage with some gaps (the answers are in Bs’ part of the text) and the Bs receive another gapped text (whose answers are in As’ part). They are put to work in pairs and have to read their parts to each other and complete their texts. 

5. Back to back dictation

Students sit back to back and read a passage to the other to write. This can also be done with pictures and drawings. In addition, students can ask for clarification and repetition for instance, which are very good communication skills.

6. Indirect dictation

The teacher tells a story using indirect speech to express what the characters are saying. The students are asked to write what each character says in direct speech.

• Delivery: When dictating, we should keep in mind that speaking too slowly alters stress, rhythm and intonation. Therefore we should speak clearly and naturally, at normal speed. It is also important to keep watching our students to make sure everyone is ready to go on. 

• Correction: Deciding on what to correct is as important as deciding on our purpose and aim. We should think about what we want to get from that dictation task. Correct spelling? Consolidation and recalling of vocabulary? Correct punctuation? Practice interactive skills? Whatever our choice, our students should be made clear about it, i.e., they have to know what the correction focus (i.e., the criteria) will be. If we use it as a learning task, quality feedback and feedforward (which give students information to perform better next time) must be provided so that the task fulfills its real learning role. If we use it as an assessment task, the correction focus should be shared with the students likewise. 

There are different ways to correct a dictation task. For instance, we could:

a) collect students sheets of paper and take them home to correct (the most traditional way!);

b) display the text on the board and ask students to do self-correction;

c) display the text on the board and ask students to do peer correction;

d) ask students to swap their sheets of paper and do peer correction.

In both situations - using dictation as a learning task and as an assessment task -, it is always a good idea to involve students in the correction process, as they will gain from this experience too!

Dictation is generally considered to be a very good way to consolidate and assess learners’ knowledge of the relationship between words and spelling. It can also be used to consolidate vocabulary, collocations, idiomatic expressions, and make them practice for some real-life situations. 

Far from being an old-fashioned technique, dictation can be a very useful and flexible tool in our hands as it can be used with students at different levels. If carefully planned and integrated with our teaching aims, dictation tasks can bring variety and fun to the language classroom by integrating skills and meeting different individual needs and learning styles. 

So why not give it a try and share your impressions with your colleagues?