Have you ever taught listening skills using dictation? When I was teaching my own children, I found dictation to be a useful technique for developing self correction. By comparing their dictation of a reading passage to the original, they found their own spelling and punctuation errors, without me having to be the bearer of negative feedback, "wrong, wrong, wrong." I watched their listening, spelling, and punctuation skills improve dramatically. Improvement in grammar was another benefit, since dictation provided a model.
Therefore, when I came across an article at Larry Ferlazzo's site with multiple links for ESL instructors, http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2013/11/23/around-the-web-in-esleflell-39/
this link caught my eye. http://authenticteaching.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/dictogloss/
If you are not familiar with how to use dictation , watch the example below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UCc6lUaUmQ
Therefore, when I came across an article at Larry Ferlazzo's site with multiple links for ESL instructors, http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2013/11/23/around-the-web-in-esleflell-39/
this link caught my eye. http://authenticteaching.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/dictogloss/
If you are not familiar with how to use dictation , watch the example below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UCc6lUaUmQ
Certainly, the same benefits of improved spelling and punctuation skills would transfer to ELL students and would also be good listening practice for them. However, I started thinking about how I could transfer this technique into an ESL classroom for pronunciation purposes. Instead of the teacher dictating a passage, having a student read a passage while his peers listen and write could be a great way for the student reader to receive peer review. By analyzing the written dictation of the other students, would the "dictator" be able to identify his own pronunciation errors and realize how significant correct pronunciation can be? Teacher monitoring of a group discussion to evaluate the resulting dictations would be helpful with this process. Plus, discussing the results as a group would give all the students speaking practice. Therefore, this would be an activity that covers many areas: listening, speaking, writing, grammar and punctuation. It would also encourage the development of student responsibility for learning and self-correction. This places the teacher in the role of facilitator rather than giving negative "that's wrong" feedback, which can be discouraging to language learners. I think I'll try it!