The Effects Of Compound Dictation Practice On Language Skills Of College English Learners In Large Class

As a variant of dictation, compound dictation (CD) first emerged in1997asa means of listening test in CET4. This distinct Chinese testing method is relativelynew, in which students have more difficulty. Study has seldom been done to evaluateits effect on language skills, especially given the increasingly growing in class sizeresulting from the enrollment expansion in higher education. The present study isconducted to examine the effect of systematic training in compound dictation practiceon language skills of EFL learners and to investigate the possibility of adaptingcompound dictation practice as a feasible teaching practice in the context of large-sizeclasses.The following three questions are addressed in this study:1. Does CD practice in classroom do any good to improving students’ languageskills?2. What is the status of CD practice from the students’ perspective?3. Is it a feasible teaching means to conduct CD in large class?In this study,200freshmen from two large class (named Experimental Groupand Control Group respectively) were taught according to the same teachingcurriculum except that students in EG received a compound dictation training. Asrevealed in the pretest, the two classes were homogeneous in overall languageproficiency as well as the specific language skills like reading and writing. After a13-week compound dictation training, the results of posttest showed that students inEG had made greater progress in reading, writing and mastery of vocabulary andgrammar. They also showed more significant improvement in their overall proficiency.Additionally, a qualitative interview after the experiment indicated that most studentsconsidered compound dictation as an effective classroom activity to improve theirlistening, writing and even speaking. The size of class had no or little influence intheir performance in compound dictation. Moreover, the requirements of compounddictation reminded them of the accuracy of spelling and inflection of the words helpthem a lot in writing and translating during the reconstructing sentences. Compound dictation can be taken as a regular classroom activity in the context oflarge class, which has effect on improving EFL learners’ language ability andlanguage skills like reading, writing, translating and spelling.