First year English Lettorato
SELF-STUDY - DICTATIONS
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ’S)
- WHERE CAN I GET THE DICTATIONS?
You can download the MP3 files* or you can do them at CLIFU (with headphones), but a better idea is to do them at home with no headphones. That way you can simulate exam conditions.The actual exam will be a bit easier since you will not be listening to a recording but to a lettore who will read the dictation.
* These MP3 files are very big and you should be prepared to allow quite some time for them to download.
- SHOULD I DO THEM IN THE ORDER IN WHICH THEY ARE LISTED IN THE CONTENTS?
Yes. As you can see on the website, they have been labelled from * to **** depending on how difficult they are.
3. HOW SHOULD I PROCEED?
Simply turn on your computer’s sound player or your MP3 player and follow the instructions you hear . Turn the player off and time yourself between the second and third reading and at the end of the dictation.
DON’T LOOK AT THE RECORDING SCRIPTS UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO CORRECT YOUR DICTATIONS!
- WHAT SHOULD I DO DURING THE FIRST READING?
Don’t write anything. Just try to understand the general meaning of the passage without focusing on specific words.
If you have problems with this, you should get more listening practice. Do the listening exercises in any general
English course. There are course books and tapes available in CLIFU (Lifelines Pre-intermediate and Intermediate
and the Headway series).
- WHAT SHOULD I DO DURING THE SECOND READING?
-Try to focus on the entire phrase dictated. If you don’t always catch every single word, write the most
important words in order to get the general meaning down.
-Don’t panic or give up if you don’t remember all the words and most importantly, DON’T GO BACK AND LISTEN TO THE PHRASE AGAIN EVEN IF YOU DIDN’T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING. Remember that you will get another chance to hear it again in the third reading.
-Make sure you transcribe the punctuation correctly. You will only hear the punctuation once during this reading.
-Write legibly. Remember that illegible handwriting will not be marked on the actual exam, so get into the habit right from the beginning.
- WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I FIND IT DIFFICULT TO REMEMBER A STRING OF WORDS LONG ENOUGH TO WRITE THEM DOWN?
If this is difficult for you , it means you have to work on intensive listening comprehension. You can get valuable practice by doing the Connected Speech sections in HeadwayUpper Intermediate Pronunciation in CLIFU.
You can also try doing this exercise. Choose a passage from any course book. Read an entire sentences and then write it down. Don’t look back at the text! You may not remember every single word, but if you concentrate on the general meaning of the sentence, you should be able to write the most important words and then work out what the rest of the words are. This is an ability you can develop over time and it will help you to revise grammar and learn new vocabulary and collocations.
- WHAT SHOULD I DO BETWEEN THE SECOND AND THIRD READING?
You have 2 minutes to check your work. Use this time wisely. Use the context to guess any words you didn’t manage to write.
Remember that dictations test general listening comprehension and your ability to write accurately (following all the rules of grammar). Check whether what you’ve written makes sense both in terms of meaning and grammar. For example, you will not hear apostrophes in saxon genitives or capital letters and you may not hear endings such as ed or s.
Underline anything you are not sure of in pencil so you can check it during the third reading. Don’t worry too much about spelling.
- WHAT SHOULD I DO DURING THE THIRD READING?
This is the time to check anything you are not sure of. There is a 2 or 3 second pause at the end of every sentence and this should give you enough time to change anything.
- WHAT SHOULD I DO AFTER THE THIRD READING?
You will have two minutes to do a final check. Time yourself. Make sure everything is grammatically correct and makes sense. When you correct your dictation you may realize you made mistakes you could have easily avoided.
10. HOW SHOULD I CORRECT MY DICTATION?
Now you can finally look at the recording script in order to find your mistakes.
A full mistake is when a word is wrong or omitted or when there is a grammar mistake such as no “s” at the end of a third person singular verb.
A spelling mistake is when a word is recognizable but has been misspelled or when a word should be capitalized or underlined .
Count full mistakes 1x and spelling or punctuation mistakes ⅓ x.
If you make the same mistake more than once, only count it once. If you write a word instead of a number or you use the British instead of the American spelling (or vice-versa) don’t count it as a mistake.
Total up your mistakes and round off your mark (2 ⅓ x = 2x ; 2⅔ x = 3x). To evaluate how you would have done on a real exam , you can use this table as a general guideline.
0 - 2 x = excellent
3 - 7 x = good
8 - 11 x = fair
12 - 15 x = pass
16 or more = fail
If you don’t know how to evaluate your dictation, show it to your teacher or to me during my visiting hour.
Franca Barrilà - First Year Coordinator - Visiting hours: Thursdays 14:15 -15,15