English Dictation Practice - Listening Test (MAX SCORE: 71)

Hello lovely students and welcome back to

English with Lucy.

In today's lesson I am going to put your listening skills to the test.

I've got a really interesting and useful activity for you, it's a dictation test.

Now if you've never heard of dictations before don't worry because I'm going to

tell you what they are and I will give you a thorough explanation of how this

lesson is going to work.

But first don't forget to download the

free PDF for today's lesson.

It contains all the information on

dictation plus some links to some extra dictation exercises.

So if you enjoy this lesson you can practise even more and further improve

your listening skills.

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Okay, so what is dictation?

Well it's the process of listening to spoken words and writing what you hear.

Pretty simple right?

Well easier said than done I suppose.

This type of practice is really important to add to your English study routine

because it can enhance your and your spelling and your vocabulary skills.

Additionally, dictation helps improve your overall language proficiency as you

start to unravel some of the intricacies of spoken English.

To unravel is to investigate or to solve, to explain.

Dictation exercises have so many benefits and that's exactly why we're going to

have a go at a dictation exercise today together.

For this lesson you are going to need a pen and

a piece of paper or if you don't have that maybe a smartphone or something else

to write on.

I'm going to say a sentence aloud, out

loud and all I want you to do is listen.

Then I'll repeat the sentence and you

will write what you hear.

I'll repeat the sentence a third time so

you can make any necessary adjustments or write words that you missed.

Then I will reveal the sentence and ,and this is the important bit, I'm going to

explain some of the features of the sentence that may cause confusion so that

you can look out for them in the future.

Before I read this first sentence there

are 71 words in total.

I want you to keep track of how many

words you get perfectly right and then at the end I will ask you to share your

score out of 71 in the comments section.

It will be interesting to see how you

perform and maybe you can come back to the video in a year and see if you can

find your original comment and compare your score.

Does it sound good?

Well, let's start with the first sentence.

So the first time we listen, second time you write, third time you tweak and correct.

Ready?

Our train was scheduled to arrive at half

past eight but it was an hour late.

Our train was scheduled to arrive at half

past eight but it was an hour late.

Last time now.

Our train was scheduled to arrive at half past eight but it was an hour late.

Are you ready for the big reveal?

Our train was scheduled to arrive at half

past eight but it was an hour late.

How did you do?

Maybe this one wasn't too much of a challenge but we do have a few tricky

difficult points to look at.

Firstly we have the homophones our and hour.

Homophones are words with the same pronunciation but different spellings.

The first our in our train spelt O -U -R is a possessive pronoun that shows

ownership or belonging.

Note that in fast speech we might say

our, our train.

The second hour spelt H -O -U -R is a

noun that refers to a specific unit of time, 60 minutes to be exact.

We don't ever pronounce that as r, it's always our.

Secondly we have the pronunciation of scheduled, scheduled.

The pronunciation in British English is usually quite different compared to the

American scheduled.

I'm fickle.

I use both.

I was brought up with a dad saying

scheduled and a mum saying scheduled so I just flitted between the two.

Fickle that I just used there means you change your loyalties or your opinions

quite a lot.

I said I flitted between the two.

To flit is to move lightly or swiftly like a bird.

A bird might flit between trees or a butterfly might flit away.

What I'm trying to communicate is that you should choose the one you like best

and just go with that.

Finally, we have past in half past eight

and some of you may have written passed with an -ED which is the simple past

form and past participle of to pass.

But in this sentence we're using the

preposition past, P -A -S -T to refer to a time later than eight.

How many words did you get right out of 16 for this sentence?

Keep that number because I'm going to ask you for your final score at the end.

Okay, let's move on to the next dictation sentence.

Ready?

Even though the exam was tough, the professor had prepared them well enough.

Even though the exam was tough, their professor had prepared them well enough.

Even though the exam was tough, their professor had prepared them well enough.

Okay, let's unpack this one.

Did you notice the word unpack then?

Two things I want to say about that.

Firstly, it means to analyse small parts

of it.

You will hear this used a lot in podcasts.

There's a lot we need to unpack here, to analyse here.

Also notice I said umpack, not un -pack.

This is an example of assimilation.

I've changed the N, the N to M to prepare myself to say p -umpack.

Okay, here's the sentence.

Even though the exam was tough, their

professor had prepared them well enough.

Let's start with these three words,

though, tough,and enough.

Despite having the same O -U -G -H

spelling, though is pronounced differently to tough and enough.

Unfortunately, there aren't set rules for when the pronunciation is different.

These words just need to be learnt individually.

Probably not what you wanted to hear, but

that's English.

I'm so sorry.

In this sentence, we also use the possessive their, but you may be familiar

with the two other homophones, they´re and there.

Knowing which one to write comes with

practice, but here are the quick rules.

Use this their, T -H -E -I -R, for

possession, their dog, their house.

Use this they´re, T -H -E -Y apostrophe -RE, when contracting the words they are,

They´re best friends, and use this there, T -H -E -R -E, to refer to a location.

I'll go there tomorrow.

Got it?

Brilliant.

Next sentence.

Ready?

The chef used wholewheat flour to make

the flower-shaped cakes.

The chef used wholewheat flour to make

the flower-shaped cakes.

Last one, the chef used wholewheat flour

to make the flower-shaped cakes.

Okay.

Let's see how you did.

The chef used wholewheat flour to make

the flower-shaped cakes.

I'm treating flower-shaped as two words there.

Okay.

Flower and shaped, even though we have a hyphen.

So we've got some fairly difficult things to examine in this sentence.

First, let's look at chef, spelt with C -H.

This is a loan word, a word we have

borrowed from French, which is why the C -H makes the sh sound.

We also have the appearance of some silent letters in the compound word,

wholewheat.

We don't pronounce the W in whole, nor do

we pronounce the H in wheat, whole wheat.

Finally, we have the homophones.

We love homophones.

Flour and flower.

The former is a type of ground wheat or other grain often used in baking, while

the latter is one that you might be more familiar with, the colourful part of the plant.

Let me know your score and which part you found most challenging.

Okay.

Sentence four.

He left a pair of shoes out by his mother's pear tree in the garden.

He left a pair of shoes out by his mother's pear tree in the garden.

One more time.

He left a pair of shoes out by his

mother's pear tree in the garden.

I think this one was a bit easier than

the previous one.

What do you think?

Although I said it with more of a flow.

Let's take a look.

He left a pair of shoes out by his mother's pear tree in the garden.

In this sentence, perhaps the only tricky part is with the homophones, pair and pear.

Pair, spelt P -A -I -R, refers to two items of the same type that are used

together, a pair of gloves, a pair of socks.

Pear, spelt P -E -A -R, is a type of

fruit, often recognised by its skinny top and larger bottom.

They're also really delicious, but that's besides the point.

Okay.

We have our final sentence.

This is going to give you your final score.

Sentence five.

Are you ready?

Ben tried to tear off the bandage wound

around his wound as he fought back tears.

Ben tried to tear off the bandage wound

around his wound as he fought back tears.

Final time.

Ben tried to tear off the bandage wound around his wound as he fought back tears.

How did you do?

Here we are.

Ben tried to tear off the bandage wound around his wound as he fought back tears.

Let me explain the words though.

This one was a doozy.

A doozy is a very slang term for something really difficult or outstanding

or unique.

Let's look at what we've got.

The biggest challenges in this sentence were related to the two pairs of homographs.

Tear and tear and wound and wound.

Tear, tear, wound, wound.

If you aren't familiar with homographs, they are words that are spelt the same as

another word.

Graph refers to writing, but they have

different meanings and often, but not always, different pronunciations.

A quick look at the meanings.

Tear, to pull apart or remove forcefully.

Tear, a drop of liquid that comes from one's eye.

Wound, past tense of the verb to wind, meaning to twist or wrap around.

And wound, an injury.

Once again, there is no straightforward

guide to homographs.

You just have to pick them up as you go.

But luckily for you, you've just added some new ones to your vocab bank.

You will now have your final score out of 71 that you can share with me in the

comments to see how well you've performed in this dictation activity.

Right.

That's it for today's lesson.

Don't forget to download the PDF because we have some links to some extra

dictation practices.

This will help you improve even further.

The link for that is in the description box.

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That's it from me.

I will see you soon for another lesson.