How to Create Dictation Activities
A practical guide to designing dictation activities for ESL classes, including classical, running, partial, and dictogloss variants, with tips on speed and feedback.
Dictation is one of the oldest language-teaching techniques, and it still works — when it is done well. This guide explains the different types of dictation, what each one is good for, and how to use text-to-speech to produce dictation material quickly.
Why dictation still works
Dictation trains several skills at once:
- Listening for detail, including small function words learners tend to skip.
- Spelling, especially for words they can recognise but not write.
- Punctuation awareness, because the dictation text is written exactly as it sounds.
- Working memory, since the listener has to hold each chunk in mind long enough to write it.
For these reasons, dictation is one of the few activities that touches decoding and encoding at the same time. That is also why it can be stressful — done badly, it can feel like a test rather than a learning activity.
The four dictation variants worth knowing
1. Classical dictation
The teacher reads a short text at a comfortable speed, sentence by sentence. Students write exactly what they hear. Used for accuracy and detail.
Best for: A2–B2, exam preparation, focusing on weak areas (third-person -s, articles, prepositions).
Tip: Read each sentence twice, and pause for at least as long as the sentence took to read.
2. Running dictation
One student (the "runner") stands up and reads a posted text on the wall of the classroom. They walk back to their partner, who writes down what they remember. Roles swap after a few minutes.
Best for: All levels, especially kinetic learners, mixed-ability pairs.
Tip: Use a short text (about 80 words) and put it on a sheet of paper, not on the board. The physical movement wakes the class up before a more focused task.
3. Partial dictation (gap-fill)
A text with gaps is given to students. The teacher reads the full text, and students fill in the missing words.
Best for: Focusing on specific grammar or vocabulary, large classes, lower levels.
Tip: Use gaps that target a single feature per dictation (e.g. all articles, or all past-tense verbs) so feedback is clearer.
4. Dictogloss
The teacher reads a short text twice at normal speed. Students write down what they can, then reconstruct the original text in pairs, comparing what they heard and discussing differences. The teacher does not expect an exact reproduction.
Best for: B1+ learners, focusing on grammar reformulation and noticing.
Tip: Choose a text slightly above the learners' productive level so reconstruction requires discussion.
Designing a classical dictation text
A good dictation text has these properties:
- Short. About 80–120 words per dictation for A2/B1; up to 150 for B2.
- Natural. Slightly simplified but not artificial. Include the grammar you want to focus on.
- Controllable. Avoid very long sentences, lists of numbers, or unusual names that distract from the language point.
- Relevant. The topic should be meaningful enough that learners can also discuss it afterwards.
After listening, check answers as a class. Ask one student to read a sentence aloud while the class checks. Highlight the language point of the dictation explicitly — do not assume learners will notice the pattern themselves.
Speed matters
For most ESL learners, the right speed for classical dictation is:
- A1–A2: 0.75× normal speed
- B1: 0.85× normal speed
- B2 and above: 1.0× or even slightly faster
If you are using text-to-speech, you can produce three versions of the same dictation in seconds and hand each learner the version that matches their level. This is one of the most practical uses of TTS in class.
A step-by-step dictation workflow
- Choose a short text that targets the language you want to practise.
- Paste it into a TTS tool, choose a clear voice, and select a slow-to-medium speed.
- Generate the audio. Listen once to check pronunciation and pacing.
- Download the MP3 to your computer or learning platform.
- Decide in advance how you will pause and how many times you will read each chunk.
- In class, set the context, pre-teach blocking vocabulary, and begin the dictation.
- After the dictation, check answers, highlight the language point, and move to a productive follow-up task.
Common pitfalls
- Reading too fast. Beginners especially need long pauses to write and check.
- Reading without context. Always set up the topic before pressing play, otherwise the text feels random.
- No follow-up. Dictation without a follow-up activity wastes the language the learners have just processed.
- Picking texts that are too long. If the dictation runs longer than eight minutes, learners disengage.
Pairing dictation with the rest of the lesson
Dictation works best when it is not the whole lesson. A typical sequence:
- Warm-up (5 minutes) — short conversation, prediction task, vocabulary pre-teach.
- Listening for gist (3 minutes) — first listen to a related dialogue or text.
- Dictation (8 minutes) — the focus of the lesson.
- Feedback (5 minutes) — check answers, highlight target language.
- Productive task (10 minutes) — a writing or speaking task that re-uses the same language.
This sequence gives the dictation a purpose and leaves the class with something productive to do with what they have just learned.
Bringing it together
Dictation is cheap to set up, runs in any classroom, and produces visible improvement in listening and writing. A TTS tool removes the only real friction — producing a clean audio recording at the right speed — so you can focus on the design of the activity and the feedback afterwards.
For ready-made dialogues you can adapt into dictation texts, see A1 listening exercises, A2 listening exercises, and B1 listening exercises. Each dialogue includes vocabulary and comprehension questions you can turn into gap-fill dictations in minutes.