Margaret Hellman, Denmark
I use traditional children's action songs with adult learners. You can find them on the web. We actually stand up and do the actions, for example, "I'm a Little Teapot" Then we use the lyrics as a dictation or partial dictation, filling in missing words. To check for correctness, the students search the web with the first line of the song.We also talk about children's culture and encourage our learners to teach the songs to their own children and grandchildren.

Phil Mathias, Thailand
I would recommend getting hold of the book 'Dictation' by Davis and Rinvolucri from CUP. It has a great range of activities and maybe where some of the dictation activities in the Listening section have come from.

Harrow English School, UK
Dictation this way is unusual, not least in that the larger the classs the more effective the lesson.

1. The teacher (T) dictates without a script (ideally the text should be a spontaneous fantasy of T) and dictates in the proper fashion for half the time allotted to the lesson period.

2. T then calls randomly upon a pupil to stand and read back the story from the beginning. Nobody (not even T)looks at what any other person has written.

3. Anyone who disgrees with a word uttered during this opening reading must immediately say "Nay!" and offer the word he contends is correct. The rest of the class then agree or not with one or the other: it is not unknown for a third version ultimately to prove the word earning most agreement.

4. If the current reader does not secure the majority verdict for his
version of that word he has to sit and nominate the next reader. The reading
then proceeds until someone cries "Nay!"

5. And so on: if one word is uttered that meets disagreement, then the matter is resolved by a vote. All papers are accordingly corrected -- but only by their owners.

6. Points to note: SPELLING is irrelevant in this exercise: the test is whether the ORAL utterance of T is faithfully recorded and ORALLY reproduced by the reader.

7. This aspect can be a topic for many future lessons about, (e.g.,) the history of written English,the invention of dictionaries, standardised usage in the written word,and more.

8. Nobody is embarrassed by having to submit his written version to anyone. Even T does not see them.

9. Knowing this in advance has great psychological benefit for some pupils.

10. The class discussion and argument over each disputed word(see 2 and 3, above) can be most instructive for all, including T who (if he is wise) confesses that he cannot remember a word of what he said, because he was too busy making up his story to think about the words.

11. T cannot help the class decide any "correct" word. Only the majority decision is valid.

12. If T is as inventive and artful as every teacher of English should be, not only will his story be unresolved when he has to break off half way into the perod: T will be begged to continue with the adventure in the next timetabled dictation period.

13. What then is T to do when he arrives at that next lesson and cannot remember a thing about last week's episode? Who will remind him of every tiny detail?

14. And on what will they depend for that?

15. And what do you think is the youngest age of a pupil that will be intrigued by this device?

16. And what do you think is the greatest age?

Liz Dilley, Spain
I have one exercise which I find works really well. It is a type of wall dictation. Find an article, maybe a text you are going to use in the course book. Get the first student to come to the front of the class and give them the text to read. They have to try and memorise as much as they can of the first line/sentence. They then sit down and dictate what they can remember to the rest of the class. If they can remember 10 words, great. If it's only 3, no problem. When they come to a stop, or forget the next word, stop them and get the next student to do the same. This exercise also reinforces grammar and word order.

Michael Ockenden, France
My first experience of dictation was in the 1950s when I was at grammar school in the UK. The teacher had to give them because it was part of the GCE O level syllabus. We heard a lot of new vocabulary, and the activity occupied 20 minutes of a 45-minute lesson. The teacher would collect our scripts and mark them. We'd get them back, write our corrections (nothing wrong with that) but I don't believe many of the new words stuck. The teacher had spent ages, but when we got the scripts back, we never looked at them again. It was a waste of everyone's time.

However, I do believe dictation is a useful tool when it's done on a 'little-and-often' basis, and as a way of reinforcing vocabulary that has already been learnt. At the end of a lesson, I say: "Next time I'll dictate two or three sentences from page 10." If we've done a dialogue, I warn them that I'll dictate some of the things which the shopkeeper said. Of course, I don't say which things. Because students know there'll be a dictation, there's a good chance they'll revise the whole text or dialogue.

So I start each class with the dictation of two or three sentences from the previous lesson. Apart from anything else, it's a good way to get a class settled down. The students mark their own work, looking back at the course book. The whole process - dictation and self-correction - takes no more than 5 minutes.

Then I say, "How did you get on?" - quite a difficult structure, and one which will probably need to be taught. After this, I write 3 graded responses on the board such as:-

1) Quite well.
2) Not very well, I'm afraid.
3) It was an absolute disaster.

Now the students ask each other, using the above question and responses. The last one never fails to raise a laugh.

Later I may ask:-
Tell me one word which you got wrong.
Can you spell it for me now, please?

Now students ask each other the same thing in pairs.

There's no need to write words on the board. Why not spell them out aloud? Then you don't have to keep going back to the board. Spelling words aloud gives practice in recognising the letters - an important skill for the French students I'm teaching at the moment.

So don't sneer at old-fashioned dictation - it can be fun and extremely
helpful.

Ursula, Austria
I do running dictations at all levels - it is great fun and the students like it very much. First, group your students in pairs and put a text somewhere on a wall outside your classroom. Student A has to run out and read part of the text, then run back to student B and tell him what he read. Student B puts it down on a sheet of paper. They do this until the whole text is done. Some of them do very well - at a lower level they may mispronounce some words - so you have to go through the original text together in class at the end.

Chavala Venkateshwari, India
Hello,
I am a teacher working in the Sultanate of Oman. I teach the secondary level and found that dictation helps the students learn the language better. In response to the question on how dictation can be done in class I have a suggestion.

Select key words for dictation to check spelling from a lesson and get the students to learn them at home. The teacher should prepare a set of letters on small pieces of paper for the dictation. The activity can be conducted as pair or group work.

One set of letters should be given to each pair or group. When the teacher gives the word the students should arrange the spelling on their tables. The teacher could go round the class and check. The teacher can keep scores and select the best group or pair. At the end of the game the correct spelling should be asked for, to be put upon the black board which will help the students to correct themselves.