DICTAREA IN PREDAREA LIMBII ENGLEZE

There is a wide variety of techniques and procedures teachers can choose from if they aim at developing their students’ writing skills. According to Adriana Vizental in “Strategies of Teaching and Testing English as a Foreign Language” (2014), the choices that the teachers make “depend on the students’ age and linguistic proficiency, as well as on the stage in the language course the students are at”.
Dictation may be regarded as old-fashioned since it comes from a long way back to the Grammar Translation method but on further consideration, it can turn into a very useful tool due to its demonstrated versatility. Dictation can improve listening, speaking and reading, but also sub-skills adjacent to writing such as: spelling, punctuation, self assessment; it can also help students to practice vocabulary, grammar and layout.
In spite of its obsolesce, dictation can be come student-friendly and teacher-friendly if teachers diversify dictation techniques. Another useful tip for teachers in this case would be to link dictation to the other activities in the classroom and not make it an end in itself. If the purpose of this activity is clearly understood, students will like it and will not get bored practising it. For example, teachers can use the following type of dictation:

Reverse dictation
• The teacher read several sentences to the students and they correct the mistakes on the paper they have, or fill the slots in it.

Pair dictation
• Two students are given different parts of the same text; they have to complete the text by dictating it to the pair.

The dictoglos
• The students listen to the teacher reading a text at a normal pace while the students are taking notes and then they try to recreate the exact text or a similar one.

Benefits of dictation
• Students are made are made aware of typical comprehension errors such as: frequent omissions of –s plural, -s’ genitive, -s third singular
• It gives practice in note-taking
• All the four skills are practiced in an integrative way.
• It can involve the whole class
• Students can correct the mistakes.
• By retaining meaningful phrases, students develop short term memory.

Bibliography
Vizental, Adriana, Strategies of Teaching and Testing, Editura Orizonturi Universitare, Timisoara, 2003;