Dictation Practice Advanced English Listening Skills

hello hello welcome to today’s live

English lesson here on the speak English

with Vanessa

YouTube channel I’m glad you’re here to

learn English with me and today to

improve your listening and writing

skills of course when you improve your

listening and writing skills you’re

going to improve your speaking you’re

going to improve your communication in

general so today we have a special

dictation practice to help you really

learn the specific things about English

that maybe you miss when you’re

listening so today if you’re joining me

live welcome I’m glad you’re here hello

Edvin I’m glad you’re here we have

friends from Thailand

Rosario Lynn Brazil welcome Kevin and

Ecuador hello hello I’m glad you’re here

to join me today before we get started I

want to let you know this is like always

an active practice together so you need

to have a pen or a pencil and you need

to have some paper something to write

with

if you don’t have a pen and paper go now

and get some get something to write on

even if it’s a napkin even if it’s your

hand we need to be actively practicing

today’s dictation practice because this

is something that you can listen to but

you need to interact with you need to do

it yourself so take a moment get

something to write with get a piece of

paper get a notebook and prepare to

listen carefully for details and also to

be nice to yourself if you miss some

words don’t worry about it

thank you for joining me from Oman from

Iraq welcome Mauritania welcome I’m glad

that you are all

here in Cote d’Ivoire excellent

excellent first let me explain what is a

dictation practice I made a video a

couple weeks ago about dictation and how

it can help you to improve your

listening skills how it can help you to

improve your communication because

you’re listening for each detail and of

course how it can improve your writing

skills so what is dictation well it

means that one person today that’s me

one person is going to read a sentence

and you need to write exactly what I say

think about each detail each capital

letter each little piece of punctuation

you need to think about the details the

spelling the pauses prepare yourself

because this is a great way to make sure

that you’re understanding everything

maybe you feel like you understand the

general meaning but you need to

understand each word if you’re gonna

actually communicate in an active way in

an accurate way if you miss an important

word your conversation could have some

some negative effects so today are you

ready do you have those two things

something to write with and a piece of

paper mmm well today we’re going to be

talking about three dictation sentences

one of them is an easy sentence one of

them is a medium sentence and one of

them is an advanced sentence and the

good news is they each build on the

previous sentence so the first easy

sentence is our base idea and then the

medium sentence is going to add a little

bit to that and then the advanced

sentence is going to add even more so

what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna share my

screen

with you first of all because I want to

share with you a concept that we’re

going to talk about in the dictation so

in the dictation there’s a word that I

want to explain to you so I’m going to

share my screen and you’re going to take

a look at a picture a picture on this

screen let’s see if I can share alright

okay so I should be sharing my screen at

the moment here you can see a lovely

picture a lovely picture this is a

picture from Sunday on Sunday I was in

New York City visiting my sister so you

can see my sister here you can see Dan

my husband here and you can see her

husband Jorge here and we participated

in a New York event that’s pretty pretty

typical on Sundays in New York

it’s called brunch brunch this word

mixes breakfast and lunch together

brunch and it means on Sunday you don’t

go early in the morning and eat

breakfast at a restaurant you take your

time you go slowly and maybe 12 o’clock

maybe one o’clock maybe two o’clock you

go to a restaurant and you eat usually

breakfast food so there’s eggs and toast

and here there are some some special

drinks at this place they serve what did

they serve they serve like mimosas and

special kind of morning morning

alcoholic drinks unfortunately I didn’t

get to drink them because I’m gonna have

a baby but my family enjoyed it and I

just enjoyed being in the Sun outside

enjoying brunch enjoying brunch

so today’s sentences are about brunch so

I wanted to show you this picture so

that

you can imagine what’s going on I’m

gonna go back to my to my video here

hello hello we’re back so I wanted to

show you this picture of brunch and

we’ll start with the first easy

dictation sentence are you ready for the

first dictation sentence it is all about

this picture this picture is our theme

today our theme today so the first

sentence is Sunday brunch will be $19

each so what I want you to do on your

paper I want you to write this sentence

you can write it in the chat box you can

write it in the comments or you can

write it on your paper and this will

help you to correct it and to go back

our first easy dictation sentence is

Sunday brunch will be $19 each let me

say that quickly

Sunday brunch will be $19 each Sunday

brunch will be $19 each Sunday brunch

will be $19 each hmm so I would like you

to try to write this as accurately as

possible in your notebook in the chat

box in the comments if you’re trying to

write it yourself in your notebook maybe

don’t look at the chat box or the

comments for a moment because you want

to try to improve your own skills first

of all Sunday brunch will be $19 each

all right now that you have had a couple

moments to write this down let’s take a

look at the correct answer I have here

on my screen the correct sentence so

we’re going to share this Sunday brunch

will be $19 each so I’m going to share

my screen again and we’re going to take

a look

at the correct answer for our easy

dictation this is just the easy

dictation and we’re going to go to the

medium and then advanced all right here

we have our easy dictation Sunday brunch

will be $19 each typically when we write

prices we use this dollar sign here

before 1919 and this is true in New York

Sunday brunch was nineteen dollars per

person and in the city where I live it’s

much cheaper you can go to a restaurant

for mmm maybe ten dollars but in New

York my sister said $19 each is a really

good price especially if they include

breakfast plus three drinks so it was

vacation for us and we enjoyed eating

Sunday brunch so let me know how did you

do how was your first dictation sentence

Sunday brunch

will be $19 each if you missed the

beginning of this lesson we talked about

brunch brunch is breakfast plus lunch

and it’s a typical weekend meal usually

we eat it late one o’clock and you can

eat some breakfast foods so you could

see our first dictation sentence Sunday

brunch will be $19 each are you ready

for the medium dictation we’re going to

add to the sentence

same concept but we’re going to add

let’s go to the second one

get your paper your pencil ready it is

I’m going to say it slowly two times and

then I’m going to say it at a quicker

pace a more conversational speed

after that so listen carefully the first

two times are a little slower only twice

are you ready

Sunday brunch is going to be $76 for the

four of us one more time slowly Sunday

brunch is going to be $76 for the four

of us and now I’m going to read it

quickly conversational speed if I were

talking to my sister I wouldn’t say it

slowly like this I would probably say it

quicker so I want to test your ears I’m

gonna say it a couple times quickly

Sunday brunch is going to be $76 for the

four of us Sunday brunch is going to be

$76 for the four of us

Sunday brunch is gonna be $76 for the

four of us

whoo all right are you writing down are

you preparing Sunday brunch is gonna be

$76 for the four of us how is it going

can you you feel like you can hear each

word are some parts of it more

complicated let’s take a look at the

correct answer I’m going to share my

screen and we’ll see how it goes

let’s see how how did you do okay here

you can see the medium dictation Sunday

brunch is going to be $76 for the four

of us I could say Sunday brunch is going

to be $76 total that’s fine but in a

conversation we often use this final

expression for the four of us there are

four people me my husband my sister and

her husband four people for the four of

us for the four of us

Sunday brunch is gonna be $76 for the

four of us okay

are you ready for the next level the

next level builds on this idea but we’re

gonna add we’re gonna add a little bit

another expression that maybe two

expressions that I hope will be useful

to you and maybe a little new so let’s

prepare for the advanced advanced

dictation it is are you ready

Sunday brunch is going to stretch my

budget but don’t worry about it it’s on

me so this one is a little longer

there’s a couple different expressions

here we’re still talking about money

we’re still talking about Sunday brunch

but you need to make sure that your

punctuation is correct and also spelling

correct words maybe some of these words

you don’t know I’m gonna say it one more

time slowly and then I’m gonna say it

quickly Sunday brunch

is going to stretch my budget but don’t

worry about it

it’s on me hmm if you don’t know what

the full sentence means don’t worry

about it we’re gonna talk about it

just imagine the same idea Sunday brunch

sitting outside in the Sun enjoying

eating together now I’m gonna say it

quickly a couple times are you ready

let’s make sure that we can all see it

here all right

Sunday brunch is gonna stretch my budget

but don’t worry about it it’s on me

Sunday brunch is gonna stretch my budget

but don’t worry about it

it’s on me Sunday brunch is gonna

stretch my budget but don’t worry about

it it’s on me

whoo all right now this sentence because

it’s an advance sentence uses more

punctuation possibly more than one

sentence and it uses some words that are

beyond basic so I hope that for you

you’re listening you’re just gay

Sene if you don’t know exactly what it

is I’m going to read it one more time

and then let’s take a look Sunday brunch

is going to stretch my budget but don’t

worry about it it’s on me okay

I’m going to share my screen and let’s

check your answer okay let’s take a look

I’m curious how did you do with each

level let’s share this screen here okay

here is our advanced dictation Sunday

brunch is going to stretch my budget but

don’t worry about it

it’s on me it’s on me

mmm check each word check the spelling

check the punctuation and let’s talk

about what this sentence means

stretch stretch my budget so I mentioned

that in my city if I ate brunch it would

be half the price pretty cheap but in

New York everything is more expensive so

I said my budget this is the amount of

money that I want to spend my budget so

Sunday brunch is more money than I want

to spend but it doesn’t matter I want to

do it I want to go and experience this

so stretch my budget means it’s going to

expand the money that I want to spend I

have to spend more money than I want to

but don’t worry about it it’s on me I

want to ask you what do you think hello

I’m back what do you think is on me what

is on me it’s on me hmm this is an

expression that we can use in a lot of

different ways it’s on me it’s on the

house don’t worry it’s on the house

don’t worry it’s on me hmm yes

Lewis has the correct answer here in the

chat box he says I’ll pay the bill

I’ll pay for it beautiful yes I’ll pay

for it and when we went to to New York

City dan and I stayed with my sister we

stayed with her husband in their

apartment and it was really nice that

they let us stay in their apartment in

the middle of New York City such a

convenient location and we because we

were in their house we wanted to do

something nice for them so I used almost

this exact sentence I said Oh

Sunday brunch is kind of expensive but

don’t worry about it

it’s on us dan and I we paid for it we

paid for everyone because we wanted to

say thank you thank you for hosting us

in New York it’s on us it’s on me

great I want to know how did you do how

did you do with these three sentences

you can write them in the comments tell

me how you did with each one or in

general how do you feel about this

dictation practice was it interesting

was it useful to you did you build on

your vocabulary did you build those

skills we used Sunday brunch

we used prices we used some special

idioms like stretch my budget it’s on me

maybe these are new words for you but I

hope that you can listen carefully and

try to use that so my recommendation is

to use this idea of a dictation practice

and as you’re listening to up there

English materials as you’re listening to

my videos as you’re watching a movie or