The ministry of higher and secondary education of the republic of uzbekistan pedagogical institute of karshi state university

Description
: Listening/ Extensive (1) 
 Dictation 
Extensive listening tasks focus on macro-skills of listening, producing larger 
stretches of language. These tasks are used for advanced English Language Learners. 
Extensive listening tasks include lectures, long conversations, and lengthy messages 
that require listeners to decipher information and derive meaning. Dictation is a 
widely researched genres used for assessing listening comprehension. Students 
taking this test listen to a passage about 50 to 100 words in length three times (normal 
speed/ slow speed/ then normal again). Students write down what they heard, which 
requires good listening skills as well as writing. Dictation provides a reasonable 
method of integrating listening and writing skills implied in short passages. 
Depending on passage length, this method places more strain on memory and 
process of meaning. I have included an example of a dictation with short reading 
passages. Dictation is a widely researched genre of assessing listening 
comprehension. In a dictation, test-takers hear a passage, typically of 30 to 100 
words, recited three times: first at normal speed; then with long pauses between 
phrases or natural word groups, during which time test-takers write down what they 
have just heard; and finally at normal speed once more so they can check their work 
and proofread. The following is a sample dictation at the intermediate level of 
English. Dictations have been used as assessment tools for decades. Some readers 
still cringe at the thought of having to render a correctly spelled, verbatim version 
of a paragraph or story recited by the teacher. Until research on integrative testing 
was published (Oiler, 1971), dictations were thought to be not much more than 
glorified spelling tests. However, the required integration of listening and writing in 
a dictation, along with its presupposed knowledge of grammatical and discourse 
expectancies, brought this technique back into vogue. Hughes (1989), Cohen (1994), 

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Bailey (1998), and Buck (2001) all defended the plausibility of dictation as an 
integrative test that requires some sophistication in the language to process and write 
down all segments correctly. The difficulty of a dictation task can be easily 
manipulated by the length of the word groups (or bursts, as they are technically 
called); the length of the pauses; the speed at which the text is read; and the 
complexity of the discourse, grammar, and vocabulary used in the passage. Scoring 
is another matter. Depending on your context and purpose in administering a 
dictation, you will need to decide on scoring criteria for several possible kinds of 
errors: 
 
• spelling error only, but the word appears to have been heard correctly
• spelling and/or obvious misrepresentation of a word; illegible word
• grammatical or phonological error (e.g., “the southeast have a hot desert”)
• skipped word or phrase
• permutation of words (e.g., “a fertile large valley”; “the part of the central state”) 
• additional words not in the original
• replacement of a word with an appropriate synonym
Determining the weight of each of these errors is a highly idiosyncratic choice; 
specialists disagree almost more than they agree on the importance of the above 
categories. They do agree (Buck, 2001) that a dictation is not a spelling test and that 
the first item in the list above should not be considered an error. They also suggest 
that point systems be kept simple (for maintaining practicality and reliability) and 
that a deductible scoring method, in which points are subtracted from a hypothetical 
total, is usually effective. Dictation seems to provide a reasonably valid method for 
integrating listening and writing skills and for tapping into the cohesive elements of 
language implied in short passages. However, a word of caution lest you assume that 
dictation provides a quick and easy method of assessing extensive listening 
comprehension. If the bursts in a dictation are relatively long (more than five-word 
segments), this method places a certain amount of load on memory and processing 
of meaning (Buck, 2001, p. 78). However, only a moderate degree of cognitive 
processing is required, and claiming that dictation fully assesses the ability to 

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comprehend pragmatic or illocutionary elements of language, context, inference, or 
semantics may be going too far. Finally, one can easily question the authenticity of 
dictation: It is rare in the real world for people to write down more than a few chunks 
of information at a time. Despite these disadvantages, the practicality of 
administration, a moderate degree of reliability in a well-established scoring system, 
and a strong correspondence to other language abilities speaks well for the inclusion 
of dictation among the possibilities for assessing extensive (or quasi-extensive) 
listening comprehension. 
This form of listening assessment assesses students’ ability to identify 
phonemic differences within a normal conversation. 
Example: 
Students are writing while the instructor reads a passage. 
First read at normal speed (students only listen) 
I can skate. I can ski. Can you swim? 
Yes, I can. Help! Help! Wait! I’m coming.
Second read with designated pauses (students write): (I 
can/skate. I can/ski. Can you 
swim? Yes, I can. Help! Help! Wait! I’m coming.)
Third read at normal speed (students check their work): 
I can skate. I can ski. Can 
you swim? Yes, I can. Help! Help! Wait! I’m coming.