A Study Of The Effectiveness Of Dictogloss In Creating Conditions For Second Language Acquisition

Dictogloss is a task-based, communicative teaching procedure that involves dictating a short text at normal speed to the learners. As the text is being read, the learners jot down familiar words and phrases. Then working in small groups, the learners pool their 'battered texts' and strive to reconstruct a version of the text from their shared resources. Each group of learners produces their own reconstructed version, aiming at grammatical accuracy and textual cohesion but not at replicating the original text. Finally, the whole class reconvenes and the groups' versions are analyzed and corrected.Dictogloss is believed to be an effective method to create conditions for second language acquisition (SLA). However, no empirical data have been provided so far. Therefore, the author attempts to undertake a descriptive research of the effectiveness of dictogloss in creating conditions for SLA. The study was carried out to deal with how dictogloss contributed to the acquisition of linguistic knowledge, how it created conditions for the students to develop communication strategies and how it stimulated students' interest.The main sources of data for the present research are the recording of group discussion (which has been transcribed) and the students' responses to a questionnaire, both of which were collected by the author when she implemented dictogloss with her own students. Based on the previous research of dictogloss and the related theories, the author sets up an analytical model to analyze the transcript data in study of the language behaviours considered important for SLA and analyze the students' responses to the questionnaire.The main findings are:1. Dictogloss contributed to the acquisition of linguistic knowledge inthat the group-work reconstruction task offered the students opportunities to use language items from the dictogloss text and negotiate grammatical points and the language items that were above their present level.2. Dictogloss created conditions for the students to develop communication strategies, the evidence being that the real purpose to complete the task engaged the students in genuine communication, whereby they used a lot of lexical items serving either speech-organizing or interactional functions and employed different negotiation skills in negotiation.3. The large quantity of student talk in the group discussion and the students' positive views about dictogloss showed that dictogloss was effective in stimulating the students' interest.Finally, reflecting on the problems that existed in the implementation of dictogloss, as represented by the students' responses to the questionnaire, the author makes some suggestions for improvement.