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Part1isanintroductiontodictationactivitiesanditcoversthreeareas:thepurposesofdoingdictation,theguidingprinciplesforconductingdictationandthestrategiestoimprovepupils’spellingandnote-takingskills.

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AccordingtotheEnglish Language Curriculum Guide (Primary 1-6)(CDC,2004)(pp.174-178),dictationisanactivitythathelpslearnersdevelopphonologicalawarenessandphonicsskills,listeningskillsandwritingskills.Dictationcanalsobeconductedtomotivatelearnersandpromoteautonomyin language learning. After each dictation, teachers can analyse pupils’performanceandmakeuseof theassessmentdata toprovidepositiveandconstructive feedback to pupils. In other words, dictation can be used topromoteassessmentforlearning.

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Dictationprovidespupilswithagoodopportunitytoapplythephonicsskillsthey have learnt to spell newwords. It also facilitates the development ofpronunciationandspellingskills.

Forpupilsatanearlystageoflearning,moreemphasiscouldbeplacedontheirunderstandingof letter-soundrelationships.Theycouldbeaskedtofillinsomelettersrepresentingthetargetsoundstheyhear.Forexample,pupilscould be asked to listen to initial consonant blends and ending consonantblends that arenot common inCantonese (e.g. ‘br’ as in ‘break’, ‘st’ as in‘first’).

Atalaterstage,pupilscouldevenbeaskedtoproviderhymingwordsinshortpoemsorother literary texts.Forexample, theycanbeasked to fill in therhymingwordswhen they listen to the teacher’s reading of a poem calledShell Secrets**.

**ReferenceEducation Department. (2000). Let’s Experience and Appreciate Poetry (LEAP).

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Dictationisausefulactivitytodeveloppupils’listeningskills.Inordertospellthewordscorrectly,pupilsneedtodiscriminatebetweendifferentconsonantsounds (e.g. walk / talk), consonant blends (e.g. mask / mast) and vowelsounds(e.g.sit/sat).

Forwordswithsimilarpronunciations,pupilshavetomakeuseofcontextualcluestodecidewhichwordstowritetosuitthecontext,e.g.Mybrotherdoesnotliketoeatmeat(notmeet).

Dictationisalsoausefultooltodeveloppupils’note-takingskills.Teachersmayprovidepupilswithdifferentgraphicorganiserstohelpthemtakenoteswhilelistening.Inthelisteningprocess,theycouldalsobeaskedtopayattentiontotheconnectionbetweenideassupportedbyappropriatecohesivedevices,e.g.Ilikepainting,soIjoinedtheArtClub.

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Apartfromlisteningandnote-takingskills,pupils’writingskillscouldalsobedeveloped through dicto-comp / dictogloss. In the process of doing dicto-comp/dictogloss,pupilsareasked tonotedownkeywordswhile listeningtothedictationpassage,andthenreconstruct thetextusingtheir languageknowledge.Thiskindofdictationisparticularlyusefulinhelpingpupilsrevisitthetargetvocabularyandapplytheirgrammarknowledgeinwriting.

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Apart from testing pupils’ ability to spell the words learnt in the textbooksor readers under a certain theme or topic, dictation could also be used topromoteautonomyinlanguagelearning.Pupilscouldbeaskedtocollectmorevocabularyrelatedtothethemesfromotherlearningmaterials,suchaspicturedictionaries,readersandwordwalls.Duringdictation,opportunitiescouldbeprovidedforthemtowriteasmanywordsaspossible.Bonuspointscouldbegiventoenhancepupils’motivation.

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Manypupilsandparentsmerelyconsiderthemarksindictationasanindicatorof learners’ performance in English language learning. In fact, dictation ismorethanatestingdevice.Itisausefultoolforteacherstounderstandpupils’learningprogressandfacilitateassessmentforlearning.

Aftereachdictation,appropriatefeedbackshouldbegiventopupilstohelpthem understandwhat their problems are and how they can improve nexttime.Forexample,teacherscandrawpupils’attentiontotheuseofphonicsskillsaswellasknowledgeaboutgrammarandthecontexttospellandwritethecorrectwords.Itisalsousefultoteachpupilswhattopayattentiontowhentheychecktheirownworkindictation.

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In providing constructive feedback to pupils, teachers should make use ofcontext,grammarknowledgeandphonicsskillstoguidethemtoanalysetheirmistakes.

Follow-upworkshouldbeconductedwheneverappropriatetoconsolidatethelearningof the target vocabularyand language items.Teachersmay revisitthetargetlanguageitemswithpupilsbyshowingthemthecommonmistakesandhighlightingthecorrectusage.Forinstance,afterconductingthepicturedictationaboutfruit,itwasfoundthatmanypupilswerenotawareoftheuseofpluralnouns.Theywrote,‘Thereareafeweggplantnexttothecarrot.’ Also,somepupilscouldnotspellpluralnounscorrectlyandtheywrote,‘Thereareafewmangos.’Teachersneedtoremindpupilstoaddanending‘s’tomostnounstochangethemintotheplural formandexplainthespellingrulesforotherpluralnouns,e.g.mangoes,strawberries.

As for the confusing vocabulary items, teachers may highlight theirpronunciations,meaningsandpartsofspeechtohelppupilsusethecorrectvocabularyincontext.Forexample,somepupilsmixedup‘whole’and‘hole’indictation.Theywrote, ‘He (Andrew)was tired for theholeday.’Teachersshouldaskpupilstothinkaboutthemeaningsofthetwowordsandguidethemtousecontextualcluesandtheirknowledgeaboutthepartsofspeechtowritethecorrectword,e.g.‘whole’isanadjectivewhile‘hole’isanoun.

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Pupilsoftenmixupthewordsthatsoundthesameorsimilar.Teacherscanhelppupilsfigureoutthecorrectanswerbymakinguseofthecontext.Inthissentence,thepupilwrote,‘Thereisabigsheepinthesea.’Teachersmayask,‘Asheephasthickwoolandeatsgrass.Doyoufinditinthesea?Ifno,thinkaboutsomethingyoucanseeinthesea.Whatshoulditbe?’Withthehelpoftheclue,pupilsareguidedtoworkouttheanswer.

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Pupilsmaynotgetthecorrectverbformwhentheydonotpaycloseattentiontotheirteacher’sreadingoutthetextduringdictation.Theyshouldberemindedtomakeuseoftheirgrammarknowledgetoproofreadtheirwork.Inthisexample,thepupilwrote, ‘Hestudyuntil twelveo’clock lastnight.’Teachersmayask,‘Thissentenceisaboutthingsthathappened“lastnight”.Whattenseshouldyouuse?’Whenthetimemarkerishighlightedtopupils,theyareremindedtousethecorrecttense.

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Manypupils spell thewords incorrectlybecause theyarenotawareof theletter-sound relationships. Teachers should guide pupils to apply phonicsskills to improve theirspellingandpronunciation. In thisexample, thepupilwrote, ‘He gets up at seven o’cock.’Teachersmay remind pupils of someotherfamiliarwordsthatbeginwiththe‘cl’soundandthenaskthemtoapplytheirphonicsskillstospelltheword‘o’clock’.Forexample,teachersmaysay,‘Howdo you spell theword “class”?Do “class” and “clock” beginwith thesamesound?Nowtrytoapplyyourphonicsskillsandspell“o’clock”.’