- 1. DICTATIONCould we make it more enjoyable and useful?Who does what?How about turning the tables?Could the learners choose everything and then dictate to the teacher?
- 2. KEYWORDS DICTATIONFind an interesting short story and underline 15-20 of the most important words in it (e.g. key nouns and verbs).The Tortoise and the Hareracetortoiseharegoalstopwinslowwake upfall asleepDictate these words to the class - but don't tell them the original story. They now must make a new story that uses those words - in exactly the original order and the original form you dictated.
- 3. At the end, the class can swap stories, reading or telling them. You could also tell them the original if you wanted.COLLOCATION DICTATIONTaketake a breaktake a chancetake a looktake a resttake a seattake a taxitake an examtake notestake someone's placePrepare a list between ten and twenty useful two-word collocations.
- 4. For the dictation, read out one word from each collocation (learners must not write this word, but instead write a collocation – a word that goes with it)
- 5. When you have read the whole list, put the learners into small groups. They can compare their answers.WALL DICTATIONChoose a short printed text.
- 6. Divide the class into “readers” and “writers”, pair each reader with a writer; writers sit down, readers stand.
- 7. Stick the text up in a wall far away from the writers so that they cannot possibly read it.
- 8. Each reader walks to the text, reads and memorises part of it and then goes back to their writer to dictate it.
- 9. The writer writes it down, asking any relevant questions about words, spellings, punctuation, etc.THE “BAD COLD” DICTATIONExplain that you have a bad cold today (sneeze or cough a bit to prove it!).
- 10. Tell the class that you're going to do a normal dictation - but if you have to sneeze or cough (and they can't hear a word) they should write any good word that fits the space. For example you might dictate, "Last Thursday Maria decided to have some cough for breakfast."
- 11. The learners could write the sentence with a word like 'eggs' or 'cornflakes' or 'whisky' instead of the cough.THE WILD DICTATIONDictate a numbered list of descriptions of words, like this: "No.1 the name of a male pop star; No.2 an adjective describing some food; No. 3 a verb of movement, No.4 a kind of animal" etc.
- 12. The learners should write down answers to these prompts e.g. "Robbie Williams, salty, swim, kitten" etc.
- 13. When the lists are finished dictate a short story you have prepared - but with appropriate gaps (into which the learners will write their own previously chosen words) e.g. "A car drove up to the zoo and stopped suddenly and - No.1 - got out. He looked really - No 2 - as he started to - No 3 - towards the No.4's cage." etc. You'll get some very funny stories.DICTOGLOSSChoose a short text (the text could include an example of a grammatical item you are interested in).
- 14. Tell the students that you would read it only once.
- 15. Read the text at a normal pace, then give the students about three minutes to write down everything they remember (words, phrases, etc).
- 16. Invite students to compare with another, then later to come together as a class to see if they can reconstruct the entire text on the board.LIVING TAPE RECORDERDraw some tape recorder controls on the board (e.g. a symbol for a Play button, a Rewind button and a Stop button).
- 17. Introduce yourself as a 'living tape recorder'. Get two students to stand near the board to control the 'tape recorder' while you read the dictation.
- 18. Members of the class can call out to ask the 'controllers' to 'press' the buttons. You ignore anything people say but strictly obey any button presses. In this way you will read the dictation, rewinding, replaying, rewinding etc until the students are happy that they all have the dictation. It's a bit chaotic at first but it's great after that!
