Dictations Intermediate1

Festivals, Ways of Learning a Language, Good Language Learners

How to use this page

Click on the to listen to the dictation.

Hover your mouse on
to read the text.

Collapse all | Expand all

Do the full dictations

Do not look at the story. Write out the (whole) story as you listen to it. You will need to stop and start the audio.
Listen again to check your writing.
Check your writing with the transcript.

Write a summary

Listen to the story. Do not write or read anything as you listen
- When you finish listening, writ out the story in your own words
Read the transcript and compare it to your story

Practise speaking

As you are listening to the dictation, you can repeat it aloud to yourself in a soft voice
If you want to, you can even record your own voice on the computer (using the applet below, repeating each phrase of the dictation
Helps you practise fluency. You should aim to keep up with the speaker at his/her natural pace
Helps you practise pronunciation. Aim to sound as much like the speaker as you can.

Picture Source

Festivals

Christmas the World Over

Source: Adapted from the preface by Margaret Atwood in The Canadian Green Consumer Guide prepared by the Pollution Probe Foundation, 1989, McClelland & Stewart Inc.

Christmas in the World

Adapted from: The Best of Password, 1981

Japanese New Year

Kurosawa, T. (1993) "Japanese New Year" in Festivals, a collection of essays written by Class Four, English Language Institute Summer Course 1993-1994

Ways of Learning a Language

Using Non-linguistic Resources

Adapted from: Littlewood, W. (1984) Foreign and Second Language Learning.

The Language Learning Journey

Adapted from: Brown, H. Douglas (1989) A Practical Guide to Language Learning p. 1

Accents

Adapted from: Brown, H. Douglas (1989) A Practical Guide to Language Learning p. 51-53

Mother Tongue Interference

Adapted from: Brown, H. Douglas (1989) A Practical Guide to Language Learning p. 51-53

Good Language Learners

Who is the Successful Language Learner?

Rubin, J. and 1. Thompson (1982) How To Be a More Successful Language Learner Boston: Heinle and Heinle

- Find a Style of Learning that Suits

Stern, H.H. (1975) What can we learn from the good language learner? Canadian Modern Language Review 31, 4: 304-318.

- Get Involved in the Language Learning Process

Stern, H.H. (1975) What can we Learn from the good language Learner? Canadian Modern Language Review 31, 4! 304-318.

- Language is Used to Communicate

Stern, H.H. (1975) What can we learn from the good language learner? Canadian Modern Language Review 31, 4: 304-318.