English Dictation Practice Advanced Listening Skills
Hi.
I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Are you ready for a dictation?
Let’s get started.
Today, I’d like to practice something new
on this channel that we’ve never done before.
It’s called dictation practice.
I know some people might have tried this in
school before, maybe you had positive experiences
maybe negative experiences, but first of all
let’s explain what it is and then lets do
it together, so that you can decide if it’s
helpful for you, because I want to introduce
you to new ideas, new techniques and if it
works for you great.
If you’re not a big fan, no problem you tried
it.
Let’s talk about what is dictation.
A dictation means that one person is speaking,
while someone else is writing exactly what
that person is saying.
So, this type of practice, is useful for listening
skills and also listening for accuracy.
Some people use this to improve their writing
skills, but personally I found that it really
has helped my listening skills, so that I
know each detail of what the person is saying.
In general, with this idea you need to have
a piece of paper, a pencil and your ears ready,
because someone today that’s me, is gonna
read a couple of sentences and you need to
write exactly what those sentences are.
Make sure that you use capital letters in
the correct places, make sure you use punctuation
in the correct places and most importantly,
make sure that the words are accurate.
That’s the whole goal.
You wanna accurately hear what other people
are saying.
To help with today’s dictation, I brought
a really popular kids book.
Maybe you read this in your own language when
you were a kid.
This book is called Oh, the Places You’ll
Go!!
And it’s by a famous author, Dr. Seuss.
Typically, Dr. Seuss likes to create fine
imaginative words for kids and usually his
language is a little bit different.
He tries to make some fun words that create
different sounds with words.
What I’m going to do is, I’m gonna choose
some normal sentences.
Something that’s close to daily conversation,
so that you can really practice listening
and writing.
Before we go any further, I recommend getting
a piece of paper and getting something to
write with.
Pause this video, don’t go any further until
you can write and participate.
Because, I want you to try dictation and see
if it works for you.
Don’t just watch me read it, but also participate.
Go right now get a piece of paper get something
to write with and participate.
Are you ready?
I’m gonna show you first the picture for this
page.
I’m gonna cover the words because I don’t
want you to see them, but we gonna take a
look here at this lovely picture.
You can see a little guy over there he’s walking,
he looks pretty confident, he’s walking around
a crazy looking place, this is typical Dr.
Seuss illustrations and writing.
I’m gonna read to you a couple of sentences,
one sentence slowly.
Then I’ll pause so that you have a chance
to write it, the next sentence slowly, then
I’ll pause and you can write it, and I’ll
continue until we finish.
Only one time.
Then I’ll go back and read it a second time,
so you can check your writing check your listening
skills maybe some of these words you never
heard before.
Great.
It’s a good listening practice to see if you
can guess how are they spelt?
How can you use this?
I’m gonna start with the first sentence, I’ll
pause you can write and then at the very end,
we’ll go back and do it one more time so that
you can fix any thing that you dint hear correctly.
Are you ready?
Let’s start with the first sentence.
You have brains in your head.
Now is your turn to write.
You have feet in your shoes.
You
can steer your self any direction you choose,
So far we’ve had three sentences.
Let’s read the final part, and then we’ll
go back.
You’re on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to
go.
If you need dome more time to write before
we go back, it’s okay, pause the video.
We’re gonna go back to the very beginning.
I’m gonna read them with a little pause, not
too long, a little pause between sentences
so that you can hear the sentence again, check
your listening, check your writing.
And then at the very end, of course, I’ll
show you the correct answers so that you can
see how you did and if you’d like to continue
this style.
Let’s go back to the very beginning with a
little pause.
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to
go.
All right?
We listened to all of these sentences two
times, slowly.
If you need to pause the video, no problem.
It’s here forever.
You can take a look at it whenever you want.
Now, let’s see the final answer.
I’m going to show you the page and you can
see and compare to your writing to see how
it looks.
Is it accurate?
How is your spelling?
How is your listening?
Did you correctly hear each word, and maybe
the words that you don’t know yet that you’ve
never heard before?
How was your guess?
How did you guess that it was spelled?
Let’s take a look at the correct answer.
Okay, here you can see the correct answer.
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to
go.
How did you do?
Maybe each sentence didn’t stop at exactly
the same place his sentence stopped.
Maybe your punctuation wasn’t exactly correct.
That’s all right.
The most important thing is, that you understood
each word.
Because if you’re gonna understand the whole
meaning, you need to understand each word
first.
And in total, we can see this guy, our friend
here, he is deciding where to go.
And that is exactly what you’re doing with
English.
You are in control, you can decide where you
go.
You can decide if you improve your English,
if you continue to study, if you spend valuable
time learning and enjoying it.
It’s your choice.
Enjoy English and decide for yourself.
Thanks so much for trying this dictation practice
with me, and let me know in the comments below
this video.
What do you think about this extra listening
practice style?
It’s good to understand general ideas, but
this will help you with details.
Understanding each word.
I read this pretty slowly, but I recommend
the next step is to listen to your favorite
TV show, or someone who’s speaking a little
bit faster.
And we’ll see if you’re listening can keep
up with that style.
Start slowly like we did today, and start
to go faster and faster.
It will test your ears and help you to listen
for details.
So, let me know in the comments below.
What do you think?
Is this useful to you?
Would you like me to make more dictation videos
in the future?
Something slow like today maybe faster.
Thanks so much for trying it with me and trying
something new.
I’ll see you the next time bye.
The next step is to download my free eBook,
Five steps to becoming a confident English
speaker.
I want to help you master English and speak
fluently.
Feel free to subscribe so that you don’t miss
new English lessons.
Thanks so much for learning with me.
Bye.