Shared dictation helps students to practise speaking clearly. Teachers can use this strategy to revise recently learned vocabulary, structures and genre, or to focus student attention on something important such as an overview of the lesson.
The language of the dictated text needs to be familiar to the students. Each student has half of the text. The students sit back to back, or facing each other with their papers out of each other's sight. They read out their phrases in turn, starting with 'A' who reads out the first group of words to 'B'. 'B' then writes down what s/he has heard. Then 'B' says the next phrase to 'A' and so on. Students can spell out words only after they have tried to get the message across three times.
Sample texts:
The following video shows students taking part in shared dictation at primary level
Teaching and learning sequence planning example
Primary level:
Secondary level:
Published on: 18 Dec 2017
