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Teacherscanmakeuseofbothmusicdictationandrunningdictationtoguidepupilstowritekeywords,shortphrasesandsentences.Musicdictationrequirespupilstowritedownkeywordsandphraseswhilelisteningtosongs.Inrunningdictation,pupilswritedownsentencesandshorttextsthroughgroupworkandgames.

Tofurtherdeveloppupils’note-takingandwritingskills,teacherscanconductdicto-comp / dictogloss inwhich pupils are required to reconstruct the textusingkeyphrasesandmainideasnoteddown.

Keywordsdictationprovidesanopportunityforpupilstoapplythevocabularylearntinanewcontext.Italsofacilitatesthedevelopmentofwritingskills.

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Inorder toconductmusicdictationsmoothly, teachersshouldselectsongswithlyricsthatareclearlycomprehensibleanddecidehowmuchtextcouldbegivenandhowmuchbeleftblankbasedonthelevelandabilitiesoftheclass.Pupilsareaskedtofillthegapsinthelyricswhilelisteningtothesongs.

Before listeningtothesonganddoingthedictation, teacherscouldprovidesomebackgroundinformationaboutthesongorthesongtitletoactivatepupils’priorknowledgeandexperience.Thiscanalsoenhancepupils’engagementintheactivity.

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Runningdictationisanactivityforpupilswhoenjoymovingaroundandworkingin teams.They have to read andmemorise a short text, tell the phrases /sentencestotheothergroupmemberwhowillwritedownthetext.Runningdictationisalsocalledwalldictationsinceashortprintedtextisusuallypostedonthewall.Itcanbeusedtopractisedialogues,role-playsandgrammaticalstructures–anythingpupilswouldfindinteresting.Itprovidesanopportunityforpupilstodeveloptheirreading,speaking,listeningandwritingskills.

Sinceitisarace,pupilstendtogetexcited.Theymayrunveryfastandmakea lotofnoise.Tomaintainclassroomdiscipline,adaptationscouldbemadeandrulescouldbesetbeforehand.Forexample,pupilscouldbeaskedtowalkinstead.Tokeepthenoisedown,noshoutingisallowed.

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There are different ways of conducting running dictation. Here are a fewsuggestionsforteachers’reference:

1.Insteadofreadingthetextpostedonthewall,the‘runners’runtotheteacherwhowillreadoutloudasentenceofthetext,i.e.theylistenandremember.

2.Insteadofreadingtexts,picturescanbeused.The‘runners’run,lookatthepictureandthendescribewhattheyseetothe‘writers’whowilldrawthepictureorwriteaboutit.

3. The text is cut into discrete sentences. These cut-up texts are placedaround theclassroom indifferent locations.When thegrouphaswrittendownallthesentences,themembershavetoworktogethertosequencethesentencestomakeacompleteandcoherenttext.

4.Formoreableclasses, the teachercanreadaloud the textonce for theclass to get a general understanding of the text.Then, somenotes arepostedonthewall.The‘writers’jotdownthenotesreadbythe‘runners’.The‘runners’and‘writers’thenworktogethertomakesentencesfromthenotes,andsharetheirsentenceswiththeclass.

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Ashortdictationtextispostedonthewallfarawayfromthe‘writers’.Pupilsworkingroups.Eachtimethe‘runner’memorisesaphraseorasentenceofthedictationtextandretellsittothe‘writers’.Theroleofthe‘writers’istowritedownthewholetextbasedonwhattheyhaveheard.Dependingonthepupils’abilities,theteachercoulddecidethenumberoftimesthe‘runner’cangoandreadthetext.The‘writers’of thesamegroupmaycomparewhattheyhavewrittentocomeupwithanagreedversionofthetext.

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Teachersshouldpayattentiontothefollowingpointswhenconductingdicto-comp/dictogloss:

1.Allow time for pupils to discuss the topic before the activity. It is helpfulfor themtorevisitoracquiresomevocabularyand language items in theprocess.

2.Readthetextatnormalspeedforpupilstounderstandthemeaningofthetextinthefirstreading.

3.Readthetextagainatnormalspeedforpupilstotakenotes.

4.Askpupilstoworkingroupstoreconstructthetextfromthenotes.

5.Withtheteacherasthefacilitator,pupilscompareanddiscussthetext ingroups,payingattentiontolanguageaccuracy.Throughtheprocess,pupilsareguidedtoapplytheirgrammarknowledgetowritethetext.

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Tosuit theprimaryclassroominHongKong,adaptationscouldbemadetodicto-comp/dictogloss.Belowaresomesuggestions:

1.Thetextcanbereadaloudmorethantwicetomakeiteasierforpupils,butnottosuchanextentthatpupilshavetimetowritedowneverysingleword.Teachersshouldmakeitcleartopupilsthattheyarenotexpectedtowriteeveryworddownandtheymayusetheirownwords.

2.Pupilscouldbeaskedtonotedownsentencesreadtotheminajumbledorder and then re-organise the sentences. It provides an opportunity forpupilstobemoreawareoftheorganisationoftexts.

3.Theteacherreadsaloudathought-provokingtext.Afterreconstructingthetextas indicto-comp /dictogloss,pupilsareasked togive theiropinionsabout it by either adding a new paragraph at the end or inserting theiropinionswithinthereconstructedtext.

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Dicto-comp / dictoglossmaybe challenging to somepupils during the firstlistening. The teacher could provide support (e.g. pictures) to help pupilsunderstand the story. Through arranging the pictures in the correct order,pupilscanhaveabetterunderstandingofthesequenceofeventsbeforetheystarttakingnotes.

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Duringthesecondlistening,pupilsareguidedtotakenotesusingasequencechart.TheyonlywritedownthekeywordsastheylistentoAndrew’sstory.

Pupils should be reminded to use short forms, abbreviations and symbolswhere appropriate. To cater for learner diversity, less familiar words (e.g.rushed)couldbeprovidedtopupils.Theteachercouldalsoplaytherecordingonemoretimeforthelessablepupils.

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PupilsareaskedtoworkinpairstosharethenotestakeninPart3.Itfacilitatesthedevelopmentofcollaborativelearningskillsandallowspupilstolearnfromeachother.Thentheyfinishthewritingindependently.

PleaserefertoLT3.1inAppendixAforthedictationworksheets.

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Pupils listen to an oral presentation about a teacher called Miss Lee. Toprepare pupils for the dicto-comp / dictogloss, a table is provided for themtotakenotes.Pupilshavetonotedownthemainideas(i.e.thequalitiesthatmakeheragoodteacher)andthesupportingdetails(i.e.thereasons).

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Pupils use the originalwording or their ownwords to reconstruct the text.Finally,theyareaskedtohelpeachotherrevisetheirwork.

PleaserefertoLT3.2inAppendixAforthedictationworksheets.

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Pupilslistentoaproceduraltext(e.g.cookingscrambledeggs)inajumbledordertwice.Theytrytounderstandthetextduringthefirstlisteningandwritedownthekeywordsduringthesecondlistening.

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InPart3,pupilswritethesentencesaboutcookingscrambledeggswiththehelpofkeywords.

In Part 4, pupils compare their notes with their partner / group membersand discuss the correct order of the sentences by considering the logicaldevelopmentofthetextandthecohesivedevicesused.It isagoodwaytodeveloppupils’organisationskillsandimprovetheirwritingskills.

PleaserefertoLT3.3inAppendixAforthedictationworksheets.

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Pupils listen to the story about the Fox and the Crow twice. They get anunderstanding of the story during the first listening andwrite down the keywordsduringthesecondlistening.

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Pupils compare their notes ingroupsand reconstruct the story individuallyin the spaces provided. After reconstructing the text, pupils are asked tocommentonthebehaviouroftheanimals,usingadjectivestheyhavelearnt,e.g.‘Ithinkthefoxiscunningandthecrowisfoolish.’

PleaserefertoLT3.4inAppendixAforthedictationworksheets.

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Theideaofkeywordsdictationisthatsomekeywordsorphrases(about15–20)arechosenfromaninterestingtextorashortstory.Theteacherdictatesthesewordstopupilsinexactlythesameorderandtheoriginalformwithoutshowingthemthetext.Basedonthesekeywords,pupilswriteanewtextwhichtheywillsharewiththeclass.Keywordsdictationisagoodwaytoencouragepupils tousethevocabulary inanewcontextandtheycan learnfromtheirpeerswhentheysharetheirwork.

Thedictationactivitycanbeadaptedtosuittheabilityofprimarypupils.Forinstance, pupils could be taught the target language and vocabulary itemsrelated to the topic in advance.For the lessableandaveragepupils, theycanusesomeorallthekeywordsorphrasestowriteaboutthesametopic.Asforthemoreablepupils,theycouldbeencouragedtowriteaboutanewtopicusingthekeywordsprovided.Toprovidemoreflexibility,pupilscouldbeallowedtochangethewordformsifnecessary.

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AfterintroducingthetextaboutStanleyMarketandlearningthetopicoftouristattractionsinHongKong,theteacherdictatesfifteenkeywordsandphrasesrelatedtothetexttopupils.Basedonthekeywordsprovided,pupilshavetowriteaboutatouristattractiontheylikemost.

ReferenceReadingTextStanleyMarketHongKong is a nice place for tourists. I am amazed by the big shoppingcentresandbeautifulbeaches.Among themanyattractions inHongKong,I thinkStanleyMarket isamust-goplacebecause themarket town isveryinterestingandtheseaviewiswonderful.

LastSunday,IvisitedStanleyMarket.Itwascrowdedwithmanytouristsandshoppers. I bought some Chinese paintings and souvenirs at reasonableprices.ThenIenjoyedadeliciousseafoodmealonthewaterfront.Ilookedatpeopleplayingwatersports.Ialsotookphotosofthebeautifulbeachandtheoldbuildings.

Stanleyiscertainlythebestplacetospendarelaxingday.

(Thekeywordsandphrasesselectedfromthetextareunderlined.)

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Tohelppupilsmakegooduseofthekeywords,awritingframeworkcouldbeprovided.Someguidingquestionsaregivenforthemtowriteeachparagraphwithaclearfocus.Pupilsshouldthinkaboutwhentousethekeywords,e.g.intheopeningparagraph,thebodyortheendingparagraph.

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After drafting their ideas, pupilswrite about a visit to a tourist attraction inHongKong.TheycouldwriteaboutStanleyMarketoranytouristattractiontheylikeusingthekeywordsprovided.

Pupilsshouldberemindedtoproofreadtheirwritingbeforesubmissionasthewordformsofthekeywordsprovidedmayneedtobechangedtosuitthenewcontext.

PleaserefertoLT3.5inAppendixAforthedictationworksheets.