Dictogloss

(TESOL Ideas--Activities that can be used for Any Grammar Point, Sources for Model Texts)

Index

* Past Perfect Dictogloss

* Past Perfect Continuous Dictogloss

* Verb and preposition collocation

I've mentioned dictogloss on this blog a few times before in the past (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, etc), but I've never done a dedicated post on it.  And as I've been recently compiling ideas for model texts, I thought I should include dictogloss in that list, and write up a brief description here.

Dictogloss comes during the presentation stage of a grammar lesson.

The previous time I described dictogloss was in this post here.  At that time, I used this description:

Dictogloss (Materials: a short passage including the grammatical item, that the teacher has prepared ahead of time) (Preparation: create short passage--10 minutes)

Before class, create a short passage that embeds a particular grammatical form you wish to emphasize. 

Read the dictogloss through once at a normal speed, asking students to listen carefully.  (Give them a gist question).  Read the dictogloss a second time, and encourage students to jot down notes.  (Students should write down keywords, but not whole sentences).  Have pairs of students work together for approximately 20-25 minutes to reconstruct the dictogloss, reminding students that they should try to write their text so that it will be as close to the original as possible in grammar and content. Tell  the students that the original sense of each sentence needs to be present and the reconstructed sentences have to be as grammatically accurate as the students can manage, but the words and phrases don’t have to be identical to the ones in the original passage. 

Put the students into larger groups.  (Groups of 4 instead of groups of 2).  Have them compare their answers, and work to consolidate their answers into one final answers.  

Select at least one group and have them write their answer on the board.  Have the class talk about the answer, and as a class, agree on the final answer.  Then, the teacher shows the class the original passage, and the class talks about the differences.

That description was heavily influenced by this PDF here.

I should add, however, that this is simply one way of many of running a dictogloss.

I've seen numerous presentations on dictogloss techniques over the years (at teacher conferences, workshops, training sessions, etc), and I can't help but notice that everyone seems to have their own slightly different method of running a dictogloss.  I've also noticed that certain practitioners tend to be very dogmatic about dictogloss techniques ("it has to be done exactly this way, or it's wrong") while other people are more flexible about how to run it. And so, caveat lector, you will have to use your own judgement on what is the "correct" way to run a dictogloss.

But all dictogloss techniques have the basics in common.  And the basics are these: the teacher creates a short text using the target grammar.  The teacher reads that text to the students.  The students take notes, and then try to reconstruct the text using their notes.  At the end, the teacher shows the original text to the students, and the students compare their versions with the teacher's versions.  The attention is drawn to the target grammar, which the students might or might not have correctly reproduced.

If you follow those basics, you're doing some sort of a dictogloss.

The differences come in in terms of procedure: how many times do the students hear the text?  When are they allowed to take notes?  How big are the groups when the students reconstruct the text? et cetera

In the past, when I've done dictoglosses, I've generally followed this procedure:

1. lead-in to the context of the dictogloss.  (So, for example, when using this dictogloss here, the lead-in was "Talk to your partner.  What did you do this morning?)

2. I give the students a gist question, and read the dictogloss one time.  Students answer the gist question.  

3. Sometimes I have the students listen to the dictogloss a second time and answer specific information questions.  

4. I read the dictogloss again.  Students listen and take notes for keywords.

5. Students work with a partner to reconstruct the text, based on their notes.

6. I recombine students into groups of 4, and they check their answers again.

7. A final version gets written up on the board.  I ask the class if they agree.  Then I show my version.  (If I have a room with a computer projector, I project the dictogloss at this stage.  Otherwise I hand out the paper copy.)

8. Attention is then drawn to the grammar point, and the meaning of the grammar point is checked, either with concept checking questions (see here for an example) or a guided discovery worksheet (see here for an example)

However, recently I was working with an experienced CELTA tutor who emphasized a slightly different procedure.  In his version, it's very important that the students don't write down the key words until after the text is read out. This is because you don't want the students to write down the grammar point in full during the listening.  The reason is, the students learn best when dictogloss is used to make the students notice the gap between their current abilities and the target form.  So, for example, if the target form in the dictogloss is the past perfect continuous, you actually don't want the students to write down the full verb form (" had been swimming") during the notetaking stage.  You want the students to try to reconstruct the text based on only the key words and the grammar resources that they currently have.  Then, when they compare their version to the teacher's versions, there will be a big "a ha" lightbulb moment when they notice the difference in the grammar.  And this will make the learning more memorable.

For this same reason, he said, you might sometimes ask the students to write down only the base form of the verb (e.g. "swim" instead of "swimming") so that they don't have access to any clues as to the grammar when they are attempting to reconstruct the text themselves.

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One last note.

The dictoglosses I've made on the past perfect and the past perfect continuous are not ideal because they are contrived and inauthentic texts made purely to showcase a grammar point.  The best dictoglosses are personal stories.

When I watched the experienced CELTA tutor in action, all of the dictoglosses he used were real stories from his real life.  The students knew that they were real stories.  (Students always seem to know when something is real and when something is contrived.)  And so the students were really interested in the dictoglosses because of this.  Whereas with my dictoglosses, the students were not interested at all.  So, the lesson is: whenever possible, use real personal stories when creating a dictogloss.