mind the time it takes for students to hear, process, and write
the missing words. Don’t put the blanks too close together;
give students enough time to !nish writing each one without
feeling too rushed. You might pause after each sentence to
give students a little more time to write. To make the activity
simpler, you could supply two or three word choices for each
blank instead of asking students to think of words entirely on
their own.
Teacher dictation: Prepare several sentences including the
sounds you’re working on. Make sure the vocabulary and
sentence structure are well within the students’ ability; if
they have to struggle to understand the meaning of the
sentences, the activity is much less e"ective. Read or play a
recording of the sentences and ask students to write them
down as well as they can. Repeat a couple of times, pausing
during the sentence if it’s too long to remember all at once.
Then have students compare their writing with a partner, and
then check what they’ve written against the correct
sentences. Finally, ask students what words were di#cult for
them to understand. This can lead to a discussion of why
they misheard some words and how they can improve their
listening. (“I thought you said sick, but you really said thick.
Why couldn’t I tell the di"erence?”) Of course, dictations can
only be used if your students already have some ability to
write in English.
Partner dictation: Prepare a pair of handouts, each with
two or three simple sentences and space below to write other
sentences. (Di"erent sentence for each of the pair of
handouts.) Put students in pairs and give each partner a
di"erent handout. Students take turns dictating their
sentences to their partner, who writes them down. Then both
students check what they’ve written, trying to see which
sounds they’ve misheard. This activity gives students practice
in both producing and hearing sounds.Controlled practice
In controlled practice, students work with new sounds in a
very structured way. The words to be practiced are supplied
by the teacher or textbook; the students just have to repeat
them. Learners need this controlled practice when they begin
to learn a new sound. It gives them time to concentrate on
reproducing the tongue and lip movements without also
having to decide what words they’re going to say or what
grammatical forms they need. Repetition helps students to
build muscle memory—an increased ability to do a
physical activity easily after practicing many times.At this stage it’s especially important for students to have
feedback about the accuracy of their pronunciation. They
need to know if they’re doing something wrong so they can
change it and they won’t keep practicing mistakes. A famous
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