Daily English Activities: dictation

Showing posts with label dictation. Show all posts

Train yourself to hear song lyrics

Listening to songs is a great way to learn a language. It's easy to listen to a song many times, especially if it's one that you enjoy and this can really help with your listening and pronunciation.

This activity is based around the Lyrics Training website. The site helps you to listen to and understand songs.

Task:

Go to: http://www.lyricstraining.com here you can search for a song that you like or select on from the home page. Once you click on a song it will start to play, you can then select your level.

You then see some of the words of the song with some gaps. The song will stop so that you can write in the missing words.

You can also select your own language so that you can see a translation of the lyrics in your own language.

Click on 'Help' to see all the instructions.

I hope you find this useful. Here you can find more song based EFL / ESL activities.

Related links for teachers:

Best

Nik Peachey

Write a Blues Song in English

Listening to music and songs is a great way to improve your listening skills, vocabulary and pronunciation.

In this activity you create a Blues song and then listen to it. You will then listen to some more Blues music and do some listening dictation.

Task:

Go to: http://www.thebluesmaker.com/ and click on 'Start it Right Away'.

There are ten steps to creating your song. In step 1 complete the first line of the song. The song starts " I lost my .." and you choose the end of the line by clicking on one of the 4 choices.

Then move on to step 2 and choose the harmonica sound you want next. Once you have the sound you like, continue and choose the next line of the song.

Continue through all the steps until you get to step 10, then click on 'Finish my Blues'. Wait a few moments and you will be able to hear your song.

Once the song has finished playing, you can share it by sending it to your friends. Just add email addresses and click send.

If you enjoy this song, you can find more Blues music on YouTube by going to 'Browse', 'Music' and 'Blues' (or click here: Blues).

Try to find a song you like and write down the lyrics / words of the song. Once you think you have written down all the lyrics, go to: http://2hats.net/yl/ Here you will be able to search for the video and the correct lyrics to check your work.

I hope you enjoy this activity and the music you listen to and create.

Here you can find all the song related activities for EFL and ESL students

Translate a Video Clip

Translation can be a very useful tool in helping you to learn a language. It can make you think much more closely about the relationship of your language to the language you are learning. Translating also makes you think very carefully about the meaning of the text you need to translate and how to express it in your own language. Translation is also a valuable skill and one that could help you to get work.

Today's activity uses a site called Social Translator where you can find lots of translated videos, and texts and some that are waiting to be translated.

Task:

You are going to start by listening to a short video clip and writing the text in English. You can watch the clip here:

Play the clip and pause it while you write down the text with a pencil and paper.
Once you have written down the complete text in English, check it against the English transcription on the site here by clicking on 'Play' next to English > English.

Correct any errors in your text. Then go to http://babelfish.yahoo.com/ here you can type in each sentence of your English text and click to translate it into your own language.

Computer translation is not very accurate, so you will need to think about the meaning and correct the translation.
Once you have the complete text translated, you can join the Social Translation site and add your translation to the video clip. Just click on 'Join' and create your account, then go back to the video and click on 'click here' underneath 'Translate This'.

This is a great way to practice your listening , grammar, vocabulary and translation skills.

If you want to request translations of words you don't know you can go to: http://socialtranslator.org/request and add a word or phrase.

If you enjoyed this activity you can find other videos to watch and translate here: http://socialtranslator.org/translations/videos These already have English transcription.

Here you can find more translation activities.

Related links for teachers:

Best

Nik Peachey

Dictation to Improve Your Listening

Dictation is a great way to improve your listening, but it can be very challenging. In today's activity we look at a site that helps you improve your listening and at how you can approach dictation activities without being defeated by them.

The activity uses a site called Listen and Write. This site has some good clear audio recordings and some useful tools to help you through the dictation.

Task:

You are going to listen to a recording called 'Teens, Television, and Depression'. The text is about a study that looks at the relationship between media use and mental health in teenagers.
Before you listen to the audio activity, make some notes on paper about what you think the text will mention.
Y0u could also think about your own views on this topic and the kinds of media devices you use, such as i-pods and computers. Do you think they have an effect on your mental health?
Now go to: http://www.listen-and-write.com/audio/show/459
Play through the complete audio recording and check your notes to see how many of the things you thought of were mentioned.

Make some more notes about what you remember from the audio text.
Now you are ready to start the dictation. Click to play the first part of the recording.
Listen and try to write in the words you hear. You can stop and start the player so that you have time to write.

If you are having problems you can click to get the next letter or the next word.

Try to finish the complete text. When you get to the end you can register on the site and record your score. If you have enjoyed this activity you could also try another dictation.

Doing one of these activities each week will soon help to improve your listening skills. I hope you enjoy this activity and come back for more EFL ESL activities tomorrow.

More listening activities

Play Audio Puzzles

Developing your ability to hear and understand a range of English accents is a key skill in developing your ability to communicate.

Audio Puzzler is a great website to help you listen to and understand English. It has a range of texts and you listen to parts of each text, write what you hear and then arrange the parts of the text in the correct order.

Task:

Go to: http://www.audiopuzzler.com/ and check the rules so you know how to play.

Start the game and then pick a text 'Fight Club - 8 Rules' is a good one to start on as it isn't too long.

Click the bubbles and type in the text as you hear it. Then arrange the text in the correct order.

You have to play against time and you get a score. Try to complete the text at least 3 times and improve your score.

I hope that you enjoy this activity and it helps with your listening.

Do leave a comment to say what you thought of this activity. More activities tomorrow.

Related links for teachers:

Best

Nik Peachey

Listen and Write the News

Listening to an audio text and writing down what you hear can be really useful for developing your listening skills. You can do this very easily using the Listen and Write website.

It's simple. You just go to the site listen to the text, then try to write what you hear.

Task:

For this task I've selected a suitable text for you. The text is called 'Your Reaction to the Idea of Paying Students'
Before you listen to the text , make some notes in English about what possible reactions people could have to this idea.
What are your own reactions? Do you think students should be paid to learn? Write down your reaction in English.
Now listen to the text by clicking the title below. Once you have listened to the complete text, listen again one sentence at a time and try to write what you hear.
Your Reaction to the Idea of Paying Students
The text is at level 11, if you find it to difficult or too easy go to this page and select another activity at a different level: http://www.listen-and-write.com/audio/level

There are many other texts for you to listen to, so why not try a few more. If you register on the site you can collect your scores.

I hope you have enjoyed this listening activity. Come back tomorrow for something different.

Best

Nik Peachey

Daily English Activities

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Train yourself to hear song lyrics

Write a Blues Song in English

Translate a Video Clip

Dictation to Improve Your Listening

Play Audio Puzzles

Listen and Write the News

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