The Effect Of Dictation Practice On English Majors' Language Skills In The Chinese EFL Classroom

Theoretically, dictation practice is a useful teaching and learning device. Many researchers concern about the study on dictation practice. Jafarpur & Yamini(1993) carried out an empirical study in Iran, however, the result of the experiment did not reveal significant difference between the experimental group and the control group in any aspects of language skills(including listening, grammar, writing, dictation) after the experiment with dictation practice. Takeuchi (1997) carried out an experiment among 207 English majors in Japan. The subjects were divided into three treatment groups and received three varieties of partial dictation practice. The result of the experiment proved that dictation was an effective teaching method. Subjects in all the three groups showed statistically significant improvement in foreign language listening comprehension. Yang(2003) carried out an empirical study in the Chinese EFL learners who major in Japanese, the result of her study revealed significant difference between the experimental group and the control group in the subsections of listening and dictation in the test, whereas no significant difference in vocabulary and grammar. Based on the previous empirical studies, taking problems existing in these studies into consideration, the present study intends to investigate the effect of dictation practice on the language skills of English majors in Chinese EFL classroom. This study reports an experiment in which three groups (Control Group, Experimental Group 1 and Experimental Group 2) of students followed the same teaching curriculum except the dictation practice conducted in two experimental groups. All together 90 students took part in this experiment. During the 17-week experimental period, the control group did not have any kind of dictation practice in class, whereas experimental group 1 conducted standard dictation practice in the classroom, experimental group 2 conducted partial dictation practice in the classroom. Results of the pretest and the survey of learning efforts showed that the three groups had no significant difference both in their English language proficiency and their studying effort on English learning outside class. The results of the posttest and delayed posttest indicate that systematic dictation practice helps English majors improve listening abilities and their abilities in taking dictation.An error analysis further supports the results. The results of a survey on students' attitude toward dictation reveal the fact that students view dictation as an effective learning device and useful exercise in the classroom. It is expected that the findings of this study will help foreign language teachers further understand the effect of dictation practice and exercise various forms of dictation for pedagogical purposes, and that the finding of the study will encourage the foreign language learners make better use of dictation as a learning device. Above all, as an effective and time-saving practice, partial dictation is recommended to be exercised in English majors' Comprehensive English class.