Cloze Type Dictation Exercise

Competency: To be able to conduct a cloze type dictation exercise.
Purpose: A dictation exercise can have many purposes. It is an excellent
listening exercise and can by used to sharpen the skills of listening and
comprehending. It also helps to develop reading and writing skills by exposing
the student to the written form of the language as he listens to the spoken
form. Students begin to recognize sight words and to make associations of sounds
with letters. The dictations can also be used to develop spelling skills by
leaving a blank in place of the words you want the student to practice. Finally,
it can help the student to learn the structure of the language by focusing his
attention of structures which he does not yet control.

Preparation:

Step 1: Get a copy of the dictation exercise for each student.
    You can have the students write directly in the blanks or if the materials
    are not consumable, you can have the students number the blanks and write
    the answer on a separate sheet.

Step 2: (Optional) Tape-record the dictation exercise at normal speed with a
brief pause after each sentence.
    (The advantage of tape recording the exercise is that students will not ask
    to slow it down or to repeat a word as readily.)

Step 3: (Optional) Make an overhead transparency of the dictation exercise with
the blanks filled in.

Teaching:

Step 1: Hand out the dictation sheet.
    Tell the students that you are going to play (or read) a passage and that
    you want them to listen, read along on their sheets, and writhe in the
    missing words.

Step 2: Play the tape or read the passage at normal speed with a pause after
each sentence allowing the students to write in the missing words.
    Do not repeat the sentence.

Step 3: Present the overhead transparency or write the correct answers for each
blank on the chalkboard.
    Let the students check their work.