ey do by giving a practice dictation during the regular class period. When administering dictation as test, make sure everyone has lined paper and something to write with. Write out on the blackboard any unusual name or expression from the dictation passage that you think could be possibly confuse your students. It is also helpful to explain the scoring procedure, if you have not done this earlier. Then tell them that the dictation will be read aloud three times. When you read it orally the first time, do not pause during the passage. Students must not write anything at this time. They should simply listen carefully so they can understand what the entire thing is about. The second time, pause after every five to ten words, as previously marked. During each pause, the students are to write down what they have just heard. If they have not studied much about punctuation yet, you can provide punctuation for them. Do not repeat any words and phrases. Be sure to make your pause long enough so that everyone has time to write down what he has heard. Nothing is gained by having pauses that are very short. In fact, you should watch students to make sure that everyone has had an opportunity to finish writing, before you continue with the next phrase. The third reading, without pauses and at normal speed, provides an opportunity for quick proof-reading. But again, no repetition of words or phrases is permitted.the Dictation controlbest way to score a dictation control is to deduct one point for each error. We recommend this even if you are counting off for spelling and punctuation errors. It might seem fairer to take several points off for less serious errors. But much practical experience with class dictations has shown this to be time consuming, frustrating, and unreliable. For accurate, fast, reliable scoring, simply take off one point for each error. This includes omitted or added words, inverted word order, grammatical errors- everything. (One exception is to take off one point for the first time a word is misspelled but not for repeated misspelling of the same word. Also, unless there is a need to check student mastery of mechanics, it is all right to ignore errors in punctuation or spelling for beginning to intermediate students.) easy way to provide a numerical score for a dictation is simply to give a fixed number of points for it. You can do this regardless of the number of words in the passage. If the dictation is not part of larger test, you can use 100 points. Next, add up the number of errors on each dictation. If no one makes as many as 100 errors, you can just subtract the number of errors from 100 for each person s score. I f several students make more than 100 errors, you can divide the number of errors on every paper by 2. You would then subtract this from 100 for their score. (Keep in mind that if many students make numerous errors, you have probably chosen a passage that is too difficult for them. In such a situation, you will probably want to test them over again using an easier selection). If you use dictation and one other measure such as a grammar test or reading comprehension exam, you can allow 50 points for the dictation. Suppose you found papers with the following numbers of errors: 108,73,28,19, and 12. You could divide each by 2 and subtract from 5. The first person would lose 54 points. But since minus scores are not used, he would simply receive 0 on the dictation. (If you wanted to avoid a zero score for the first paper, you could divide the number of errors on all controls by 3 and subtract each of these from 50).:
. Here is the number of errors made by five students on a dictation: 17, 81,50,28,40. Since the dictation was used with a reading comprehension test and a short essay, allow only 30 points for the dictation. Convert the error totals to point scores. (A zero score is permissible, but nearly all should be above zero).
. Using the Norway dictation as a model, select a passage from your students ESL text for a dictation test. Shorten it and adapt it by composing a suitable introductory sentence or two. Since it is part of a larger test, this dictation should be 85 to 100 words long. Place slashes (/) at the places where you intend to pause.
. Identify any problems that you see in the following dictation: are both advantages/and disadvantages/in visiting Boston/during your Christmas vacation./It is pretty cold/and uncomfortable then,/and there is some danger/of catching cold./But there is/the famous Boston Symphony Orchestra/to hear, and there are famous/historical places everywhere./There is the Old North Church/and there are/famous schools and museums./Also there is Bunker Hill./It is a famous/battleground of the American Revolution.
4. Count the number of errors that you find in the student paper below. Use...
