We plan to upgrade The Indonesian Way with a new feature: Dictation.
Dictation?!
Isn’t the word ‘dictation’ synonymous with ‘old-fashioned’, ‘boring’, and ‘teacher-centred’? Is it still useful in the age of communicative language learning?
Dictation has been used in the field of language learning for hundreds of years. However, many language teachers and methodologists regard this method as useless and out-of-date.
I disagree. I think that dictation is a useful activity, especially in e-learning. It forces the learner to actively listen during the dictation, trying to catch every word. It enables students to listen and understand language at natural speed, and, most importantly, it trains your ear to understand connected speech as it is produced by native speakers.
Connected speech is a continuous sequence of sounds forming utterances or conversations in spoken language. There is often a significant difference between the way words are pronounced in isolation and the way they are pronounced in the context of connected speech. For example, words or syllables can be clipped or run together, or their stresses can change. Understanding connected speech can be effectively trained through dictation.
Implementation
Every recording is presented twice: once at natural speed and once at slow speed. Learners should try to catch as much as possible at the natural speed level, and only use the low-speed recording when really needed.
Please try it out, even if you have not yet subscribed to The Indonesian Way. Lessons 1 to 4 are free.
We are also in the process of adding dictation for our intermediate course Baca Yuk, and also to the advanced Indonesian course Serba Serbi Nusantara.
We would highly appreciate if you could have a look at the dictation exercises that we have created. Please let us know whether you like them, and how we can further enhance them.
Terima kasih banyak,
The Indonesian Way Team
Leave a Comment