English Dictation Practice: Advanced Listening Skills

Hi.

I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

Are you ready for a dictation?

Let's get started.

Today, I'd like to practice something new on this channel that we've never done before.

It's called dictation practice.

I know some people might have tried this in school before, maybe you had positive experiences

maybe negative experiences, but first of all let's explain what it is and then lets do

it together, so that you can decide if it's helpful for you, because I want to introduce

you to new ideas, new techniques and if it works for you great.

If you're not a big fan, no problem you tried it.

Let's talk about what is dictation.

A dictation means that one person is speaking, while someone else is writing exactly what

that person is saying.

So, this type of practice, is useful for listening skills and also listening for accuracy.

Some people use this to improve their writing skills, but personally I found that it really

has helped my listening skills, so that I know each detail of what the person is saying.

In general, with this idea you need to have a piece of paper, a pencil and your ears ready,

because someone today that's me, is gonna read a couple of sentences and you need to

write exactly what those sentences are.

Make sure that you use capital letters in the correct places, make sure you use punctuation

in the correct places and most importantly, make sure that the words are accurate.

That's the whole goal.

You wanna accurately hear what other people are saying.

To help with today's dictation, I brought a really popular kids book.

Maybe you read this in your own language when you were a kid.

This book is called Oh, the Places You'll Go!!

And it's by a famous author, Dr. Seuss.

Typically, Dr. Seuss likes to create fine imaginative words for kids and usually his

language is a little bit different.

He tries to make some fun words that create different sounds with words.

What I'm going to do is, I'm gonna choose some normal sentences.

Something that's close to daily conversation, so that you can really practice listening

and writing.

Before we go any further, I recommend getting a piece of paper and getting something to

write with.

Pause this video, don't go any further until you can write and participate.

Because, I want you to try dictation and see if it works for you.

Don't just watch me read it, but also participate.

Go right now get a piece of paper get something to write with and participate.

Are you ready?

I'm gonna show you first the picture for this page.

I'm gonna cover the words because I don't want you to see them, but we gonna take a

look here at this lovely picture.

You can see a little guy over there he's walking, he looks pretty confident, he's walking around

a crazy looking place, this is typical Dr. Seuss illustrations and writing.

I'm gonna read to you a couple of sentences, one sentence slowly.

Then I'll pause so that you have a chance to write it, the next sentence slowly, then

I'll pause and you can write it, and I'll continue until we finish.

Only one time.

Then I'll go back and read it a second time, so you can check your writing check your listening

skills maybe some of these words you never heard before.

Great.

It's a good listening practice to see if you can guess how are they spelt?

How can you use this?

I'm gonna start with the first sentence, I'll pause you can write and then at the very end,

we'll go back and do it one more time so that you can fix any thing that you dint hear correctly.

Are you ready?

Let's start with the first sentence.

You have brains in your head.

Now is your turn to write.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer your self any direction you choose,

So far we've had three sentences.

Let's read the final part, and then we'll go back.

You're on your own.

And you know what you know.

And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

If you need dome more time to write before we go back, it's okay, pause the video.

We're gonna go back to the very beginning.

I'm gonna read them with a little pause, not too long, a little pause between sentences

so that you can hear the sentence again, check your listening, check your writing.

And then at the very end, of course, I'll show you the correct answers so that you can

see how you did and if you'd like to continue this style.

Let's go back to the very beginning with a little pause.

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

You're on your own.

And you know what you know.

And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

All right?

We listened to all of these sentences two times, slowly.

If you need to pause the video, no problem.

It's here forever.

You can take a look at it whenever you want.

Now, let's see the final answer.

I'm going to show you the page and you can see and compare to your writing to see how

it looks.

Is it accurate?

How is your spelling?

How is your listening?

Did you correctly hear each word, and maybe the words that you don't know yet that you've

never heard before?

How was your guess?

How did you guess that it was spelled?

Let's take a look at the correct answer.

Okay, here you can see the correct answer.

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

You're on your own.

And you know what you know.

And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

How did you do?

Maybe each sentence didn't stop at exactly the same place his sentence stopped.

Maybe your punctuation wasn't exactly correct.

That's all right.

The most important thing is, that you understood each word.

Because if you're gonna understand the whole meaning, you need to understand each word

first.

And in total, we can see this guy, our friend here, he is deciding where to go.

And that is exactly what you're doing with English.

You are in control, you can decide where you go.

You can decide if you improve your English, if you continue to study, if you spend valuable

time learning and enjoying it.

It's your choice.

Enjoy English and decide for yourself.

Thanks so much for trying this dictation practice with me, and let me know in the comments below

this video.

What do you think about this extra listening practice style?

It's good to understand general ideas, but this will help you with details.

Understanding each word.

I read this pretty slowly, but I recommend the next step is to listen to your favorite

TV show, or someone who's speaking a little bit faster.

And we'll see if you're listening can keep up with that style.

Start slowly like we did today, and start to go faster and faster.

It will test your ears and help you to listen for details.

So, let me know in the comments below.

What do you think?

Is this useful to you?

Would you like me to make more dictation videos in the future?

Something slow like today maybe faster.

Thanks so much for trying it with me and trying something new.

I'll see you the next time bye.

The next step is to download my free eBook, Five steps to becoming a confident English

speaker.

I want to help you master English and speak fluently.

Feel free to subscribe so that you don't miss new English lessons.

Thanks so much for learning with me.

Bye.