A variation on dictation: dictogloss

Kat's recent post, where she mentioned dictations (see also the comments on her post for more ideas), made me think of dictogloss, which is a technique I can highly recommend.

Dictogloss is, basically as follows:

The dictogloss is a teaching procedure that involves the speedy dictation of a short text to a group of language students. The students take notes during the reading of the text and then, working in small groups, proceed to piece together the text as a cooperative endeavor. This is achieved by the pooling of the group's notes and the making of grammatical decisions about the text: specifically about word choice, sentence formation, and cross-sentence connections. Finally, after each group has produced its own version of the text, the whole class reconvenes and the groups' versions are analyzed and corrected."

I quote there from this short article by Ruth Wajnryb, who has also written a book on the subject, "Grammar Dictation".

What distinguishes dictogloss from dictation is, thus, the fact that you are reading it too quickly for them to be able to copy it down, at say a speed just slightly below normal reading speed. First time round, I make people just listen, no note-taking. Second time round, note-taking is definitely encouraged.

You want to keep your text reasonably short, and preteach any really difficult words. I always write complicated proper nouns, names etc up on the board.

It's also a good idea to emphasise that they don't have to produce exactly the same words -- but that the information their text includes should be the same.

Wajnryb puts the emphasis more on the grammar (hence the title of her book, and the name she uses for dictogloss: "grammar dictation" is the same thing); personally, I think what recommends the technique is the cooperative bit, the combining of skills, the listening comprehension, the reusing of the information gathered, etc, etc, rather than merely the "grammar".

You can use dictogloss for many things. If you've just been working on connectors and conjunctions, you could -- for example -- either go round provide help; or give them another five minutes specifically to work on that; or get them to "notice" the difference between your text and theirs.

It's clearly not going to be appropriate for very young learners, and requires at least a sort of lower-intermediate level, but as I know at least some of you are teaching teens...

More ideas for dictogloss, in this second article.