Dictation has seen better days. It probably peaked out back in the 50s and 60s when language learning was seen as behaviorist, that is, as developing correct speech habits. This was the belief behind Audiolingualism in the States, and Situational Language Teaching in Briton. Since language learning was seen as mechanical habit formation, it was imperative that students develop correct speech habits; errors meant failure and were to be avoided at all cost.

 

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) sees things rather differently: meaning comes first, so students learn by trying to communicate their message with whatever language they have. This is a trial and error process, so errors are viewed as a normal part of the leaning process. In the accuracy-fluency debate, behaviorism heavily favors the former while CLT puts fluency first, though accuracy is certainly not forgotten.

 

Dictation focuses on accuracy, which is why in an accuracy-based approach, it would be the bee’s knees. But dictation, like other relics of Behaviorism such as drills and PPP, still survives to this day, albeit, in a reduced form, though the bee in my bonnet really is about the excessive predominance of PPP today; but that’ll have to be another post.

 

In any case, in my classes dictations are far from being a staple activity, but are an occasional treat to add a bit of spice to the classroom diet. For example, I recently used them in a pre-intermediate class where we were focusing on the passive voice. In this case, I had given them homework, basically a sentence transformation exercise from the active to the passive. So to do things differently, I had them close their books and I dictated the answers. I thought it was quite effective: in fact it was the inspiration behind this post.

 

Afterwards I went around to see what kind of mistakes they’d made and I was surprised how many had forgotten the –ed ending of the regular past participles, also that some had confused “been” with “being”, for example writing “The factory has being closed”.

 

Dictations are also useful to work on their listening comprehension, especially of connected speech. I recently did a listening and a student got confused because she mis-heard “some other” as “some mother”. OK, it wasn’t a dictation, but she would probably benefit from some fast and fun dictations focusing on connected speech. In fact, I think I’ll do that.

 

By the way, I’m as busy as a bee these days so don’t have time to write a complete treatise here, but if you want to find out more about the birds and the bees of dictation, you could always pick up Dictation by Paul David and Mario Rinvolucri (CUP), which isn’t bad, but maybe a bit outdated (published in 1985); for example, I’d be interested in hearing their take on if and how dictation jibes with the Lexical Approach. Also googling something like “TEFL dictation” can bear good fruit. So if you want to offer your students a balanced diet of activities, be a dictator every now and then.

 

Rob in Madrid

 

What’s PPP?

 

David

 

That means Present, Practice, Produce. It’s a three-step teaching sequence where you first “present” and explain the target language to the students, often using some sort of text such as a dialogue, an article, a listening.

 

In the second stage the students practice using the target language, often using some sort of drill; for example, if you’re looking at “So am I”, you could say sentences to your students, “I like pizza”, and your students respond, “So do I”.

 

In the third stage the students hopefully “produce” the target language in meaningful exchanges, like discussing their likes and dislikes. A student might say, “I really like sports”, and another, “Really, so do I. Are you into football?”, and so on.

 

Some years ago the whole world was PPP, especially when the Headway books were popular. However, coursebooks have been inching away from that for years because linguists have pretty much proven that that doesn’t reflect the way we really learn: Learning is in fact much more chaotic, unpredictable and non-linear for such a teacher-centered, targeted approach. The buzzword for this is organic learning.

A soft breeze blows across the Spanish capital. Now the days stretch out into late evening, and as winter slowly relinquishes its grip, people shed their heavy clothes. The mild sunshine awakens new inklings as lightly-clad residents mingle along the crowded streets and plazas. The temperature is rising and new blood courses through our veins. There can be no doubt about it: we’ve got spring fever!

 

The arrival of the season of growth is a joyful moment, whose effect no-one escapes, yet it’s also a time when we see attendance fall. It seems like the natural order of things, impossible to resist, a no-brainer: would you rather be sitting in a classroom?, or relaxing in one of Madrid’s thousands of outdoor cafes, sipping drinks with friends on a mellow spring day?

 

Yet there are things we can do to encourage attendance, though they’re hard to think of because I myself would rather be sitting in the sunshine with friends and refreshments. But it seems first we can discuss with them their motivation for studying English. They need to be reminded to keep their eye on the ball. Why did they sign up for the English class? Have they reached their goals? Will dropping out cause them to lose what they’ve gained?

 

Actually the latter is all too common: on-and-off EFL students are legion. But being forever the optimist, I think I’m going to be the one teacher that really makes a difference and motivates them to stick it out to the end and make some real progress instead of being one of the numerous intermediate-plateau students who basically just manage to maintain the same level.

 

Another thought: avoid giving too many “fun” classes. It seems so natural: they show up to class, but their thoughts seem elsewhere, so you think, “They’re not up to some real learning, so I’ll give them speaking activities and a song”. Then, surprise surprise, attendance soon drops because they figure they’re not missing much anyway. So you see?, you’ve shot yourself in the foot.

 

So these are my ideas for not losing students to spring fever: remind them of their language goals, and give them “meaty” classes, where they really come away with something. If you have any ideas or comments, I’d love to hear from you.

 

 

 

Rob in Madrid

 

I’ve been pretty lucky this year, had some classes were attendance was mandatory and the rest were longer term class where those still attending are the ones planning sticking it out.

 

One interesting change I notice is with the teens I teach, right before a major holiday none of them show up, but I have to sit in an empty room for the duration of the class in case one shows up. Last major holiday I figured what the hell, it’s been 20 mins no ones here so I headed off to do some photocopying and a few days latter got a complaint that a student showed up and there wasn’t a teacher!

 

btw I enjoy your blog, not many esl ones out there

 

Hi Rob,

 

I remember a few years ago I worked in an academy that required teachers to hang out in the classroom for half the class in case someone showed up. I remember I used to always carry around crossword puzzles and books in case that happened. I looked forward to it in those days because it meant some time for myself. Now that I’m self-employed I feel more anxiety when company students start missing classes because it may mean they’re going to cancel the class. I like long-term reliable students.

 

Thanks! I’m glad you like the blog. I’m actually doing this slightly selfishly: I’m writing the blog I myself would enjoy reading, not really adapting it to an imaginary reader.

 

 

Steven Starry

 

Hi David,

I know what you mean. I tend to use a little “teacher psychology” with students as well, maybe too little (I tend to take them “seriously”), which is why I still make the wrong call from time to time. For instance, I agreed when a good long-lasting and loyal group of students wanted to get together for a Christmas lunch during the last class before the holidays last year, but as I walked back to my car after the class when we set up this “date”, I had the feeling they were going to end up cancelling that class, which they did. Sometimes, good ideas don’t work out for the reason you mentioned: “because they figure they’re not missing much anyway.”

Though I think that most of my own classes generally turn out better when they’re planned with some sort of pedagogical aim in mind, I also think that I do better in general when I am able to react appropriately to the odd situations (barriers and opportunities) that tend to pop up. For example, in the last month, I’ve had different students worrying about having spent the night in the hospital for extremely high blood pressure, another injured his knee playing tennis and may need an operation, and yet another had a big problem in one class with her adolescent daughter calling on the cell phone because she’d had a falling out with a friend.

If my students are thinking about something, I can do one of two things, I can try to distract them from it back to the lesson, or I can take a break from the lesson and talk about their personal problem, which is where some of their attention (back in the back of their mind) is going to be whether I like it or not - which will deteriorate my lesson along with the long-term memory of it. It just cannot compete for harddisk space with the other more personal problems.

By the way, I think that beautiful spring days are good time to do lessons or talk about holidays and tourism when their minds are already on that kind of stuff.

But, also, I agree with you that you need to pinch students by the ears and get them back to their lessons from time to time. We do have to try to keep them on track because they do tend to forget their goals kind of like people forgetting their New Year’s resolutions.

 

 

Hi Steve,

 

You make a good point: you need to have lesson aims, but you also have to be flexible when something unexpected comes up, whether it be students having more problems than you anticipated with a reading or whatever, or a student with personal problems. I know this is obvious, but it helps if you befriend them as much as possible – sounds like you’re doing that if you’re going out to lunch with them – so when they do have problems they feel free to talk to you.

 

But TEFL teaching is full of traps (and the uninitiated think it’s so easy!), and one is being overly flexible, in this case you can’t let one student turn your class upside down. Yeah, be flexible, listen to the student with the problem, empathize appropriately, you may even expose them to the lexis they need to discuss the issue in English; but eventually get back to your lesson aims. It’s all balance, isn’t it? Can’t be too rigid, can’t be too flexible.

 

Steven Starry

 

I agree. I just had an image come to mind of now being a tightrope walker on top of being a juggler and unicycle rider. Oh, I almost forgot, all of that while parsing the “present perfect” to the tune of “Wonderful World”. Don’t forget to keep smiling! By the way, check out “jesters” at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jester .

 

 

Hi Steve

 

Yeah, maybe some students come from a pampered, video game generation and expect English classes to be lively, dynamic and fun, all the time! They expect to be entertained by the court jester, who is walking a fine line, just like us. But as responsible teachers, we need to see that they do some real learning, and like it or not, that often means doing grunt work: “no pain no gain”. But to get the balance we’re talking about, the hard work can be offset by “fun” activities like games, songs, videos, roleplays, and debates (even though  they may not be on the same day).

 

I’ve taken to discussing these issues with my students; for example, if we’re doing a grunt activity and eyes begin to roll and loud unsuppressed yawns fill the air, I’ll interrupt them and ask them if they know why we’re doing this. I’ll ask them if they agree that the lexis they’re being exposed to is dead useful. I find if you talk to students like this, if you “lay bare your devices”, if you make it crystal clear what the aim of the activity is, students will often come around, albeit at times reluctantly, and start putting in the effort they need to learn English.

 

By the way, I think our discussion is related to the issue of learner training. Students usually need to “learn how to learn” a language, and this often involves training students to “notice” collocations. This is a lot tougher than you think. Students intuitively see language as strings of isolated words rather than as words that often go together; for example, the students will see a phrase like, “I’m watching my weight” and they’ll ask what “weight” means, but they’ll miss the very important collocation, “watch my weight”. So you can watch TV (see TV), and watch your weight (control your weight). So what’s more useful for the student: to just know the word “weight” or to know “watch your weight”? If they only know “weight” they’re more likely to speak Spanglish and say something like, “What’s your weight?” instead of “How much do you weigh?”

 

In any case, we need to help students learn to learn by making then aware that they’re going to have to use elbow grease, by raising their awareness of collocations, and by encouraging effective independent study such as reading out of class.

 

 

 

 

 

The other day one of my students, a girl from South America, came up to me after class and asked if she could “make a suggestion”, and she got the collocation right!; though I suppose a native speaker might have said something like, “David, I was wondering if I could have a word with you”. Then I’d have known I was in trouble. Anyway, she suggested we spend less time on fluency activities and more on grammar. OK, I have to admit I wasn’t expecting that: I was nonplussed, dumbfounded and flabbergasted.

 

But maybe I shouldn’t have been. I’ve been seeing more non-Spaniards trickling into my classrooms of late, especially South Americans. In that continent they seem to have an abundance of original version films and TV series, and many tell me they’ve been to the States to visit friends or go shopping (they tend to be from the upper-crust of their society). And I imagine their English classes are more skills focused and less grammar oriented than here in Spain, because they don’t tend to do so well on written level tests, but their fluency and vocabulary are obviously significantly better. You know, they get by quite well with basic English, but they don’t put in the auxiliary verbs and other fine points (which show up like a sore thumb on exams like First Certificate, which focuses quite heavily on accuracy), so many of them want to plug up holes and do Murphy type exercises.

 

Facing a classroom of Spaniards and South Americans gives the teacher an extra challenge because their needs are so different. Often Spaniards want to put into practice what they’ve already studied to pass exams in school. And they really enjoy it if these activities are bouncy and fun, along the lines of debates, role plays and songs.

 

But I’ll never forget a class I had years ago, back when you rarely saw foreigners in Spain (except for tourists), which had basically turned into a bouncy fun conversation class. They were smiling and having fun, but one day they took me off guard by telling me they didn’t think they were progressing. I think they meant they were  putting into practice what they already knew, but they wanted to learn more as well!

 

That class shaped the way I teach to this day because now I make sure that, no matter what, they feel they come away from the class with something. I want them to be able to say something like “today I learnt some useful vocabulary” or “now I understand the use of gerunds and infinitives a little better”. This is besides the more skillsy stuff like listening and speaking.

 

So when I teach a class, the first thing is to make sure they learn something. This is the language exposure phase which often involves a reading where we notice some characteristics of the language. After that I try to squeeze in a listening in every class (which usually involves a language focus as well), and finally a speaking stage.

 

So teaching becomes a game of constantly making little adjustments to keep your students as happy as possible. And sometimes their needs and wants can vary quite a bit, as my Latin American student mentioned above. In her class I’ll do my best to slot in some grammar work, and hope she appreciates the rest. Teaching means catering to everybody’s needs.

To be truthful I’ve never felt any special inclination to have the latest gadgets and gizmos. In fact I think I was the last kid on the block to get a mobile phone. Now usually if you’ve got a class in a company they’ve got a CD player around somewhere you can use, but not this company where I taught today, so I bring along these portable speakers and, get this, a CD player. Gasp! I hope you’re not shocked, this obviously being ancient, caveman technology. It actually belongs to my daughter, who of course now wouldn’t be caught dead with it. So I thought, what the heck, I’ll use it in my class. But I guess it had already expired, reached its planned obsolescence, because today it sort of moaned, closed its LED eyes, and went on to a better life.

 

Luckily I was saved by the abundant supplementary material I lug around with me everywhere I go, this would be photocopied supplementary material, happily not dependent on transistors and laser beams. I do try to keep things simple.

 

After this class I had about an hour and a half free before my next class, and being a beautiful sunny day, I was walking around the streets of Madrid and popped into an electronics shop. On all of the screens there was some cartoon movie with, I guess they’re called, synthetic people along the lines of toy story. It was amazing.

 

So off I go to the academy where I teach, which as it happens has computers with internet access in the classrooms and projectors. So I start thinking that today we’re doing a reading on the use of technology in the cinema, and I realize a film like the one I just saw would be a perfect lead-in. I kick myself for not asking the shop assistant what the film was.

 

But I think, no problem. I’ll get to class a few minutes early and see what I can find on youtube. So I find something that looks pretty cool. Some woman is running along a planet and gets to what I suppose is her spaceship-like home. But it’s really impressive, very realistic looking, but I only have a chance to watch the first minute of it. So class starts and finally it’s time to show the film. So the woman gets to her home and starts talking to the others, in French! It was a French cartoon!

 

Well, that was just a little embarrassing, but I guess it served the purpose of reminding the students of the changes brought about by technology in the field of animation, especially the introduction, but the French was embarrassing. In any case, with youtube you can just click on something else, which I did. It didn’t really go that badly, it just must have been obvious to the students I was improvising. In any case, I believe in living dangerously. What I did was much more entertaining than just going straight to the reading if I’d been too chicken to do something more imaginative because I wasn’t a hundred percent sure of myself.

Beep, beep, danger, danger: one of my classes today was a drudgery. I’ve violated one of the cardinal rules of English language teaching: thy classes shalt be lively and dynamic, at least a good bit of it.

 

Lets start from the beginning. This is a new class I got in a good company, which basically offered English classes to its employees, so I suppose they asked them, “Who wants English classes?” Five of them signed up, they found me on Madrid Teacher, the pay is pretty reasonable, definitely better than through an academy, it’s not too far from my home, so viola, I’m on it, I meet them, they seem like nice people, and now I’m their “profe”.

 

They said their level was basically intermediate, and that in fact is a pretty good average, because their skills range from pre-intermediate to upper intermediate. Therein lies the main difficulty. The weaker students have a bit of a complex, in fact one of them spends most of the time furiously taking notes and is reluctant to surface to answer questions and participate. The stronger ones end up dominating so I have to “nominate” the weaker ones to force them to participate. I also find myself slowing down for them, so things take longer than I anticipate. In fact in today’s class the main problem was I didn’t get to the fluency activity at the end.

 

This is actually a pretty good group in the sense that when they told me what they wanted they said mainly vocabulary, listening comprehension and speaking. That sounds pretty good to me, but again the problem is getting bogged down in the language input phase of things; that’s the part that ends up a drudgery. But at least they understand the importance of that phase. Yet here in Spain opportunities to put your English into practice are not abundant, so the fluency stages are important.

 

The way I see it, the upshot here is that I’m not really going to be able to use the book “properly”; that is, the group goes too slowly to get to the fluency activity in the book, so I’ll have to bring in my own, which may not necessarily always tie in with the book thematically, grammatically or lexically. But supplementing is as old as the hills, or as old as English teaching.