Dictogloss

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These activities encourage learners to present information after listening to a shorttext (in this case a set of facts) based on a specific topic. Dictoglosses work well withgroups of five or six students. One person has the reading text, while the others in the group have a set of pages withgap filling and other written tasks to complete (the task sheets could be written ontothe whiteboard for students to copy). The reader reads the text once while the studentstake mental or written notes. The reader then reads the text in its entirety once more. Students then complete the written tasks. They should be encouraged to ask the reader to re-read pertinent parts of the text, but not be shown the text to readthemselves. In this way the group of students practise questioning as well as listeningskills and hopefully discussion will be generated about the topic of the exercise withinthe group. When students have completed the task it may be a good idea for teachers to go overany interesting points raised by the class and to clarify and reinforce the main pointsof each dictogloss.