Pair-Dictation Activities for Teaching English to University StudentsC. David Smith
Chuo University (Tokyo, Japan)
In this article, I describe a dictation activity that I have used in my lessons for more that twenty years. I have found this approach to be extremely effective not only for improving students’ language skills, but also to increase their enthusiasm for language study in general. In addition, this activity is quite versatile, and can be used in almost any learning situation with students of varying ability and interest; as a component of regular lesson content, or as a stand-alone warm up activity.
This is an activity that very effectively contributes to improvement in all skill areas—reading, writing, speaking and listening. It is particularly useful for practice with paragraph structure; grammatical accuracy and pronunciation. In addition, it can be successfully employed in any class setting with any type of student. Students arriving late for lessons can be integrated into the activity smoothly, with no interruption in class activities. It works especially well in multi-level classes, with students of varying interest and ability.
This dictation activity makes use of the fact that English spelling is anything but phonetic, and the ability to properly spell a word from its sound requires some familiarity with its meaning, and the context in which it occurs. This activity also exploits the general laziness of students as errors in transcription will require the reader to spell out the word, and the writer to slowly write it out; a time consuming and tedious burden. Thus, there is a definite premium in recognizing the words from their sounds, and properly transcribing them onto the page, especially since students generally want to finish up as quickly as possible.
Active, cooperative learning activities in general are the best approach to assure focus, attention and deep concentration. This assures that students are performing at or near their optimum capability. There is no doubt that retention is maximized under these circumstances.
Preparation of Materials
I generally start with a paragraph containing between 125 and 150 words; 8-12 sentences. I try to insure that around 10-14 words will be unfamiliar vocabulary. News stories usually work best, but it is useful to eliminate some specificity from the text; dates, names, and so on; to make it as generic as possible. Since preparing the materials requires some considerable investment of time and effort, this will permit the material to be relevant for some time to come. A news story that can be used to generate follow up discussion, debate, or a writing assignment is an added plus; themes such as moral issues, global topics, popular culture or problems related to cross-cultural communication work particularly well. A sample paragraph follows:
A Japanese court has sentenced a man to death for murder. The 63-year-old unemployed factory worker was found guilty of killing his wife and two children. The sentence has reopened the debate over capital punishment in the country. Opponents of the death penalty believe it is wrong to execute criminals, and they want the government to abolish capital punishment. They also complain that most of the other developed nations have already eliminated the death penalty. Most people in Japan, however, believe the sentence was proper. Proponents of capital punishment say it is needed to prevent violent crimes, and they want the government to keep the present law. Lawyers for the convicted man have appealed to the Justice Minister to change the man's sentence to life imprisonment. Arguments about the death penalty will probably continue as long as it exists.
Once the paragraph is downloaded or input into a word processor, the next step is to create a cloze format. This can be done manually; by deleting selected words and phrases, and substituting an underline space that corresponds approximately to the length of each word. Once the desired cloze formatting is completed, both normal text and cloze version can be cut and pasted to create the dictation sheets.
A Japanese court has sentenced a man to death for murder. The 63-year-old unemployed factory worker was found guilty of killing his wife and two children. The sentence has reopened the debate over capital punishment in the country. Opponents of the death penalty believe it is wrong to execute criminals, and they want the government to abolish capital punishment.
They that most eliminated the . Most in , however, was proper. of say it , and the present law. man appealed to man’s sentence . probably as it .
A to death . The - -old unemployed was of killing and . The sentence capital punishment . of the death to the to punishment.
They also complain that most of the other developed nations have already eliminated the death penalty. Most people in
Japan, however, believe the sentence was proper. Proponents of capital punishment say it is needed to prevent violent crimes, and they want the government to keep the present law. Lawyers for the convicted man have appealed to the Justice Minister to change the man's sentence to life imprisonment. Arguments about the death penalty will probably continue as long as it exists.
The sheets can be distributed to students randomly, or in such a way as to maximize the efficacy of the activity. Pairing high and low level students; girls and boys, and creating different pairs each time the activity is done seems to produce the best results. I usually create random pairs by taking a count of the students, dividing this number in half, and assigning numbers to the students so that, for example, if there are 25 students present, I assign numbers one to twelve twice, and create one three-student group. As I count, I distribute the dictation sheets to the students. Thus, the students assigned the same number constitute a pair, and the creation of a three member group is only necessary if the total number of students is an odd number.
Next, I practice all the likely unfamiliar words by writing them on the blackboard, using choral repetition and eliciting the meanings from the students. The order these words are introduced can be either alphabetically, or chronologically; as they occur in the text—there is no particular advantage to either method. When the students are unable to define a particular word in either English or L1, I provide the meaning to them. A chronologically ordered vocabulary list corresponding to the sample paragraph follows:
court sentence murder unemployed guilty debate capital punishment opponent death penalty execute criminal abolish complain developed nations eliminate proper proponent prevent violent crime lawyer convict appeal Justice Minister life imprisonment argument
Once the students have completed the vocabulary practice, I then seat them in their pairs (and three-member groups, where there is an odd number of students in the class).
Student A, the one whose transcription sheet begins with the unaltered text, then begins to read, slowly and clearly. This student (reader) must monitor Student B (writer), who fills in the missing words in the cloze half of the sheet. Student A must not show the text to B, and if a writing error is detected, A must stop reading, and spell out the mistaken word. When the cloze is completed, B then starts reading the bottom half of the text, while A writes.
As students are busy with this, I circulate around the classroom, looking for spelling errors. If I notice any mistakes, I point these out to the students, and impress upon the reader that he/she is responsible for any errors the writer may make. As this gentle scolding slows down the pairs’ progress, they tend to avoid a repetition of this carelessness. In addition, if I detect any mispronunciation, I correct this immediately. This situation creates a substantial premium for greater concentration and involvement. The inability to properly recognize and accurately transcribe a word entails a tedious and time-consuming correction procedure. With comprehensive and careful policing of student performance by the instructor, students quickly realize that the easiest course of action is to assure proper transcription; and reader and writer collaborate to this end. The reader will make additional efforts to clearly enunciate each word in a recognizable manner as the writer endeavors to accurately transcribe the content. Needless to say, completing the activity as quickly as possible is the goal of all students—laggards fear particular embarrassment as the class waits for the slowest pair to complete the transcription. The pressure on students for speed and accuracy discourages mental translation of the content, and thus promotes thinking in English.
Should a student arrive late in class during the activity, I hand him/her the appropriate transcription sheet and seat him/her to create a three-member group. Needless to say, some pairs will finish the activity earlier than others. Surprisingly, these pairs will tend to review and try to understand; or translate the text; if not, random content questions posed by the instructor directly to these early finishers can help to keep them engaged.
Once all the pairs and groups have completed the transcription, I then read the whole text together with the class. A particularly effective way to do this is to call on individual students to read one sentence quickly, in succession, while I correct any mispronunciation. This compels all students to pay careful attention, as any member of the class may be asked to read the next sentence, and any student who loses his/her place in the text faces a penalty or embarrassment. This procedure can be repeated, and the text read several times so as to assure that every member of the class reads at least once.
I then follow this individual reading activity with comprehension questions, initially chronologically, through the text. For example: Who was sentenced to death? Who sentenced him to death? Why was he sentenced to death? How many people was he accused of killing? What did the sentence cause? Why do some people want to eliminate capital punishment? Why do others want to keep the death penalty? Do most developed countries have capital punishment? What do opponents of the death penalty want?
This activity can be extended to a discussion of the topic as well, by asking students related general knowledge questions, such as which countries use the death penalty, whether of not students support or oppose it and why, and what methods are used in executions. By writing the pros and cons on the blackboard, the issue can be used for debate and can also be extended to include a writing assignment.
For further practice of vocabulary, general fluency training, and a bit of fun, I often follow up with a crossword puzzle. I generally choose around twenty words from the text and load these into a crossword puzzle using free software available on the internet. The words chosen must be describable using one of the following formats: the meaning can easily be given in English, an antonym is available, or examples can be provided. By loading the words into the ‘create puzzle’ grid, both as ‘answer’ and ‘clue’, a numbered crossword puzzle grid with both ‘down’ and ‘across’ numbered clues (answers) is the result. The students themselves must create hints which describe the missing crossword answers. Of course, they must not show their crossword to their partner during the activity.
Both student A and student B receive the same empty numbered grid. Below student A’s grid is a list of the ‘across’ answers, and below student B’s grid are the ‘down’ answers. It is best to instruct the students to fill in their answers onto their grid before beginning this activity. On the blackboard, I write the forms the hints should take:
Q: What is across/down?
A: It means . The opposite is . For example .
If the intended answer is LAWYER, a student can say: He/She is a person who works in a court, an expert in law...
Or if the answer is CRIMINAL, a student may use: For example, robber, killer, thief, very bad person, someone in prison…
I often give the student pairs the option of using the completed transcription sheet, which, of course, makes this activity much easier, as all the answers can be located in the text. Higher level students, and those who exhibit more enthusiasm will usually choose not to view the text during this activity; to use a dictionary or view the text only when absolutely necessary. As I make my rounds around the classroom, I provide help to the slower pairs, and/or suggest that they make use of the transcription sheet. I generally forbid use of L1 during this procedure. To speed up this activity, pairs can be combined into groups of four, for example.
The pair-dictation activity I have described can be used in any classroom situation, with students of varying interest and ability; as an entire class lesson, warm up activity, or supplement to a textbook lesson. Although the preparation of materials for this pair-dictation activity entails some considerable time and effort, the materials can be reused for several years; as long as the topics chosen remain relevant. Careful elimination of specificity in the the stories allows for a longer life-span. These activities require intensive teacher participation, with the instructor constantly monitoring student performance. While this may be tiring for many, the results of this effort; students fully absorbed and actively engaged in learning, provides substantial satisfaction to all involved; and the results, in rapidly improving language skills, is a further reward. The almost universal positive student response is an added plus.
The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XVI, No. 2, February 2010