Dictogloss: Redefining dictation exercises in the EFL classroom

Listening comprehension activities in the form of dictation exercises, are common components in many English as a foreign language (EFL) courses. In its simplest form, dictation consists of students listening to their teacher slowly read a text aloud in intonation phrases and concurrently trying to write down what they managed to hear. In this way, the dictation exercise can be seen as a way of testing students' listening ability, short-term memory, and general understanding of English form and function. In this article, the authors first discuss how this format of the dictation exercise is limited in potential and how the dictogloss has emerged to fill these gaps. Then, by using examples of successful tasks currently employed in the authors' institutions, we suggest a different approach to the dictation format by expanding on the way dictogloss has been used in the past.