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DICTATION
August 22, 2003-08-30
Tutor: Edna Equihua
Notes taken by: Liliana Borbolla Romero

I. CORRECTION TECHNIQUES:
A. SHADOW DICTATION

• Choose a writer and a listener

• Teacher reads a paragraph (normal speed)
• While one writes the other just listens.
• Then have both reconstruct the story
• Teacher reads the story again so they can compare their version
• For mixed ability classes, you can use their skills putting weak-strong students.

B. PASSING THE BUCK

• Teacher dictates one sentence

• The students pass the paper to the right
• Then everyone underlines the mistakes they find in the sentence.
• Teacher dictates de second one.
• Students pass the paper to the right
• Now they underline the mistakes on the second sentence and correct the ones in the
previous one.
• Teacher-whole class review all the sentences dictated.

C. WORD FIELDS

a. Teacher dictates
b. One student writes, the other monitors
c. Then in pairs you ask them to circle all the words related to certain topic.

EXAMPLE:

Find the words related to sports

She sat in the corner. She took a sip of ther coffee and spat it out because he was foal. Her goal that
evening had been to finish her essay, but there had been constant interruptions.

For a start , her boyfriend had dropped in. she had heard him whistling as he came up the path and
jumped up like a shot to let him in.

But they had had a raw that had just made him very defensive.

He had just put off what he called his wall and being ready for every move he made.

As he thought about it she tried to block his memory from her mind .
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II. SOUNDS, SPELLING AND PUNCTUATION

1. SILENT LETTER

a) WRITE THE WORDS AND UNDERLINE THE SILENT LETTERS.

• Christmas
• Walk
• Platform
• Knee
• Sandwich
• Wrong
• Half

b) WITE THE NUMBER OF LETTERS AND THE SILENT LETTER:

NO. OF LETTERS SILENT LETTER WORD DICTATED

6 h honest
9 h character
8 ugh daughter
8 P cupboard
5 l could

2 LISTENING FOR SOUND/ STRESSED SYLLABLE

TEACHER SAY WORDS. STUDENTS WRITE ON THE APPROPRIATE COLUMN.

FIRST SYLLABLE SECOND SYLLABLES

Coffee canteen
Forty Record
Record cassette

ALTERNATIVE: Add a third column and ask them to write there, words stressed in the 3rd. syllable.
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3. TELEPHONE

a) TELEPHONE TREE. (SENTENCE DICTATION)

The teacher makes a telephone tree in class and then he/she calls the two first students in the tree
and dictates one sentence. Then the 2 students have to call their assigned classmates in the tree
and ask them to add one word to the sentence they dictate him. The last student gets the complete
sentence and brings it to class, or e-mails it to the teacher, or both.

EXAMPLE
Original sentence:Property is theft
2. Property is really theft (added word: really)

EDNA 55 80- 24 78

GREGORIO 319-35-09

LILIANA 317-51-66
EDGAR GERMAN MONICA
322-24-52 315-36-78 102-32-16

RUTH GENY BETTY

3-11-22-88 315-29-12 312-23-45

ALTERNATIVE:

This same technique can be used for writing, using the e-mail instead of the telephone.
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4. THE SENSES

• They take dictation and express feelings.

• Teacher dictates words and they sort them out according to the sense (s) that work awakens
into their feelings.

I SEE I HEAR I TASTE I SMELL I FEEL

Church yesterday pie pie typewriter
computer typewriter rabbit rabbit music
cloud radio rain
rainbow rain rabbit
rabbit music

• When they finish, they can sit in pairs and compare their tables and discuss their feelings about
the words, why did they put them in the columns.

5. THINK ABOUT MEANING

QUANTIFYING SENTENCES

Teacher dictates sentences using adjectives.

Students have to add a quantifier to th adjective used.

EXAMPLE:

SENTENCE DICTATED QUANTIFIERS ADDED

He gets home lae in the evening 7 pm
They live in a large flat 100 mts flat
It saves time Many hours
She’s overweight 20 kilos
He spends a lot of time in the bathroom 1 hour a day
It’s efficient very
She gets up fairly early at the weekend 7 am
It’s noisy 100 decibels
It often breaks down Every week

6. HIM or HER?

DICTATE LEAVING BLANKS SAYING “mmmmm” THEY’LL HAVE TO FILL IN WITH “HIM, HER,
SHE or HE”.

1. _______is a good goal keeper.

2. ________was 80 and lived alone, but ________lives happily knitting all day long.
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3. They made __________study medicine.

4. ______went to visit________in prison.

ALTERNATIVE: Dictate a story asking them to fill in the blanks with verbs

7. ASSOCIATIONS

• Set the group in pairs . Student 1 and student 2

• Dictate 2 words that are similar, student 1 writes # 1 and student 2 # 2
• They add 3 words related to the word.

EXAMPLE:

PERSON 1 PERSON 2
Wood dark, trees, chair Would llike, modal, might
Dear wife, Sir, sweetheart Deer brown, bambi, fast
Be off, good, tired Bee buzz, honey, sting

(SEE HANDOUT ASSOCIATIONS)

8. TEXT RECONSTRUCTION (DICTOGLOSS)

GROUP SETTING: (PREFERABLY IN HORSE-SHOE) Pairs. Student A stands in front of Student B

who is sitted.

• Teacher reads the paragraph.

• Student A just listens
• Student B writes what he can
• Then in pairs they reconstruct the paragraph
• In fours thy compare their writing
• Students write the paragraph on the blackboard to check their work, or teacher shows a
wallchart with the paragraph previously written..

EXAMPLE:

We will no longer accept your doctor’s statement as proof of unfitness, as we consider that if you are
able to go to the doctor, you are able tocome to work.

9. MUTUAL DICTATION (INFORMATION GAP)

• Student A has one part of the dictation

• Student B has the other
• A has to make questions to find out the missing words in his paper. B tells A the words and
then they switch. B asks A dictates.

(See handout TEXT B/TEXT A)

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10. USING THE STUDENTS’ TEXT

• Teacher elicits adjectives from sts. & write them on the blackboard.
• Students choose 4 adjectives they like and write them under 2 columns: DIFFICULT,
USEFUL.
• Then they go with someone in the class and tell his adjectives and the other writes
the opposite.

Handsome long sick near

innocent guilty

ugly tall lovely green

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11. WORS ON A PICTURE

• Teacher asks students to draw their favorite place when they were children.
• Then dictates words and they have to write them in the place that they think fit.

EXAMPLE