Improve English Listening Comprehension with Dictation Method

Teacher - Master: Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh

Listening comprehension is one of the most important skills in English. If you have good listening comprehension, you can communicate in English confidently and effectively; not only that, you will not have difficulty conquering exams such as Toeic, Toefl or Ielts. However, in reality, many people feel discouraged when learning English, especially listening because when listening, they do not understand what the announcer is saying... Therefore, this article introduces to you a listening practice method, although not new, but extremely effective: LISTENING AND DICTATION .

Why is the Listen-Dictation method effective?

- Practice listening skills (Listening): This method requires you to concentrate highly when listening. Listening 1, 2 times, you do not realize what word they are saying, even though it is a word you know, but if you try to listen 9, 10 times, you will somewhat recognize it. Gradually, you will form a listening reflex, when the announcer speaks, you will immediately understand what they are saying. This method also helps you train your memory - an important factor in listening practice.

- Practice pronunciation: One reason why you don't understand is because you pronounce it wrong. After copying the dictation, compare it with the transcript (the written content), you will find your pronunciation mistakes as well as learn the pronunciation of new words, sentence stress, intonation, swallowing sounds, and slurring... Surely, the next time you hear these words again, you will understand and have better listening reflexes. At the same time, after listening, you read along with the announcer as closely as possible and record and compare. So this is an extremely effective way to practice pronunciation.

- Improve your vocabulary and structures : After listening, take dictation and compare it with the transcript. You will try to understand the content of the listening by looking up new words and structures that appear in the lesson. In this way, you will build your vocabulary through each listening.

- Practice speaking skills: After listening, dictating, looking up new words, practicing pronunciation, you will memorize the content of that tape. Once you understand, memorizing and speaking that part out loud is not a problem. Being able to retell a story or a piece of news in English is your speaking ability.

How to Practice Listening using the Dictation method?

- Step 1 : Find a standard English source with a transcript . The content of the listening should be a topic that interests you, and the speaking speed should be appropriate for your level.

- Step 2: Listen to the whole lesson to understand the main content

Turn on the tape and listen to the entire song twice. Try to understand the main idea. You may not get the main idea at first, but don't skip this step.

- Step 3: Listen to each sentence and take dictation

You listen and write down everything you hear. Play each sentence over and over again and write down each word. Of course, this will be very difficult, you will make many mistakes and will not hear many words (maybe new words that you do not know, or words that you already know but you pronounce wrong). However, just listen, write down everything you hear (guess) then compare with the transcript and gradually learn from your experience. You will progress much faster than you think.

- Step 4: Try to understand the content of the lesson

After comparing with the transcript, you should look up new words and structures to understand the content of the lesson. This way, you will learn a lot of vocabulary through each listening.

- Step 5: Practice reading along with the tape and record it to compare.

In this step, listen carefully to the announcer read, emphasize, connect sounds, and where they go up and down. Try to read along and record. After listening to your recording, see if there are any areas that are not the same, then read them again and correct them until you are satisfied. This task is quite time-consuming, but this is an extremely effective way to practice Pronunciation.

- Step 6: Memorize the listening passage

Once you are satisfied with the recording and understand the content of the lesson, take the time to memorize the listening passage. Stand in front of a mirror and retell the story or news item you heard – take notes or find a like-minded friend to share the story with you.

Listening comprehension is one of the most important skills in English.

Where is the English transcript available?

- Beginner level

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/ (American English, select level one)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/sixminute/ (British English)

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/elementary-podcasts (British English)

http://spotlightenglish.com/listen/

- Advanced

http://learningenglish.voanews.com/ (American English)

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/magazine (British English)

http://www.britishcouncil.org/professionals-podcast-english-listening-downloads

archive.htm (British English)

http://breakingnewsenglish.com/ (British English)

http://www.cnn.com/studentnews/ (American English)

http://www.ted.com/ (summary)

http://www.listen-and-write.com/ (summary)

What are the requirements of the Listening - Dictation method?

- Every day you have to spend about 2-3 hours to practice listening with this method. Guaranteed after 2-3 months your English listening level will improve significantly.

- This method requires a lot of determination from you because it requires meticulousness, patience to sit and listen and copy each word. Practice makes perfect, so if you are patient and determined enough, you will definitely conquer English.

Good luck!