Dictation can be defined as a technique in which students hear spoken material, retain it in their remembrance for a brief time, and then write it down.
Some people enjoy it, while others despise it. Some argue that it is tedious and unresponsive, a relic of a past era because once spelling bee dominated the world, everyone else says it serves a purpose by reinforcing phonological memory and improving grammar, spelling, and listening skills. Dictation in the classroom has received some negative press over the years, with critics accusing it of being uncommunicative and teacher-centered.
There are numerous non-traditional uses for dictation. There is much to be said in its defensive system: it is a multi-skilled exercise, advantageous in large or made by mixing classes, and, genuinely thinks it or not, dictation can indeed be enjoyable!
This article discusses five different ways to incorporate dictation for class 5:
Dictation in the whistle-gap
Instead of dictating the entire text, the teacher uses a whistle to replace certain words. Which aspect of speech is required? What is grammatically correct? What corresponds to the meaning? Is the collocation appropriate? Students may gain a great deal from this practice, covering abilities assessed in high-stakes English examinations.
Also check: cuemath leap
Dictation via music
Are your students getting bored of hearing your voice? Then why not allow them to listen to another’s? Utilizing a tune for dictation may be a very restorative practice, especially when choosing a performer your students like. However, copying the words down is just the beginning: you may direct your pupils’ attention to a particular grammatical issue or region of vocabulary. You may either ask them to answer comprehension questions or, better yet, have them interpret the music. If you’re feeling very daring, why not attempt to start singing yourself?
Continuous dictation
It is a time-honored technique that includes putting texts throughout the room and having teams of children go up to them, read them, retain as much information as possible, and then rushing back to their team’s scribe and dictating. Pupils switch roles, and the objective is to transcribe the text as rapidly as possible. You may reward points for being the first to complete, but you should also deduct points for any errors committed to making pupils double-check their work. This exercise incorporates all four abilities, as well as the competition & activity interest children completely.
What occurs during dictation?
It is intricate. Dictation may think of as a ‘decoding-recoding’ operation. The pupil’s auditory input is initially processed by the brain’s ‘phonological loop,’ compared to words preserved in long-term memory. The loop can store around seven units of data. These units expire after about two seconds unless they mentally rehearse. It is still sufficient to dictate solely by ‘listening to the echo,’ as long as the portions are brief (e.g., phrase length), repeated or liberally spaced, and the topic is common.
Pupils are then required to duplicate the statement on paper using their understanding of spelling help, morphological, and syntactic forms. It includes their capacity to apply their phonics knowledge (sound-spelling relationships).
You can understand why so many students struggle with dictation. Any deficiency in some of the following areas will impair performance. On the other hand, the work helps to strengthen abilities in all of these areas. Long-term memory develops by the recovery of phonological as well as written forms.
What method do you use to administer dictation?
The tried-and-true method is to read the whole phrase or paragraph aloud to students to get the core of the issue. The content is reread in small, relevant pieces of around 3 – 5 sentences. You next read the whole phrase or paragraph aloud to kids to ensure they have completed their task correctly. You can always guide the kind of errors to check for it.
You may grade the dictation by presenting the correct version and asking kids to grade their own or a neighbor’s work. Remind students to use extreme caution because they often refuse to acknowledge errors. Allow them time. You may compute scores if you believe it would motivate the class: sum up the number of mistakes or divide it by a specified amount, e.g., 40. Specific courses get competitive over this kind of thing, but keep in mind that there is an equal number of losers for every winner!
Conclusion:
It’s simple to argue for dictation, much more so in English and French, where sound-spelling links are often weak. In France, dictation is still commonly used and for a good cause. Bear in mind the statement concerning workload.
Whatever you do, avoid making it impossible, as learners will quickly lose interest and stop looking forward to dictation. Numerous students indicate that they like dictation, and I do not doubt that it helps them develop their overall language abilities and knowledge.
Discussion about this post