Faculty of Education
Degree in English Language Teaching
Course material for 1st Year - 2024 Tutor: Contact:
Didactics of Literature (09 - 15th September)
th
José Pires
[email protected] Week 7
Unit II: Coping Without Copying Facilities
Topic: Cooperative Dictation
In this lesson we will be continuing to look at strategies and activities to use in the classroom when
we only have one or two copies of a story. After having underlined some advantages of using
dictation effectively, we have concluded that dictation is not all boring and useless. The clearest
example of our assumption was the outline presented on how to use a long-distance or (wall)
dictation.
Today, we will be looking at cooperative dictation, an activity which intends to enable the students
to:
Take notes from listening to a story;
Write the story accurately from their notes;
Use cooperative dictation activity in a classroom
Instead of simply reading a text for dictation, students can listen to a story from a cassette or CD
player to practice their listening skill where there are conditions created for this purpose. In case these
facilities are not available, the teacher can read and ask the students to write as accurately as possible
while the students listen to it twice at a normal speed as they listen and take notes. Students should be
told that they will not have to write everything. Later the teacher plays the cassette/CD or reads
without stopping until the end of the story.
After reading twice, students check their notes and rewrite the story accurately then they compare
their story with the original.
Implementing a cooperative dictation in the classroom:
Teacher writes the title of the story on the board and asks a few pre-listening questions.
Teacher tells the students he or she will read the story twice at a normal speed. They must
take notes, as they will not have time to write every word. After listening to the story they
will share their notes in their groups and reconstruct it as accurately as possible.
Teacher reads the story once and gives students about 5 minutes to share their notes.
Teacher reads story again and gives 5 more minutes.
Volunteers come and write the story on the board; teacher elicits corrections from the class.
