Dictation is the transcription of spoken text: one person who is "dictating" speaks and another who is "taking dictation" writes down the words as they are spoken. Among speakers of several languages, dictation is used as a test of language skill, similar to

spelling bee A spelling bee is a competition in which contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words, usually with a varying degree of difficulty. To compete, contestants must memorize the spellings of words as written in dictionaries, and recite ...

s in the English-speaking world. Secondary to teaching language skills, the exercise of dictation has also been used to introduce students to literary works, and to instill morals. Dictation has also been used in an attempt to capture endangered or dying languages, as in the case of Victoria Howard, a Chinook speaker who dictated songs and stories to Melville Jacobs.

Etymology

It derives from Latin, ''dictāre'' (to assert).

Method

The exercise requires at least two persons: a reciter and a recorder. The reciter reads a selected text, evenly and clearly and at audible volume, by snippets of multiple words (three to ten or as need be). The text is transcribed by the recorders, as the reciter proceeds. Each snippet is read by the reciter at first slowly, then repeated once or twice at a normal pace. Once the selection has been read to the end in this way, the reciter reads the text once again from start to finish at a normal pace. The recorders then have time to re-read their work, and edit where necessary. The exercise in knowledge, comprehension and application comes to a close. The analysis and evaluation step now proceeds as follows, upon the revelation of the selected text. The process requires a red pen, and can be varied according to the maturity of the recorders, or as to taste: * the reciter gathers the written work of the recorders and evaluates it; * the recorders are given the selection and expected to grade themselves. The latter auto-evaluation process is quicker, but is sometimes trickier for two reasons: one, the handwriting of the recorder is indistinguishable from that of the evaluator; and two, the severity of the evaluator may be in question as the same person (or class of persons) is employed. The selected texts are often taken from a sentence, a paragraph or a page of a published book, and may include an homily in morals, honesty or nobility. Biblical passages or pages from the ''Fables'' of La Fontaine have been employed with success throughout the ages.

Dictation in different languages

French

For speakers of French, ''la dictée'' is a school exercise that aims at testing the mastery of

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

and

grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

. Since many features of

French grammar French grammar is the set of rules by which the French language creates statements, questions and commands. In many respects, it is quite similar to that of the other Romance languages. French is a moderately inflected language. Nouns and most ...

are distinguished in writing but not in speech, this can be a challenging task. Some ''dictées'' became famous for their difficulty or their interest, like those of Prosper Mérimée and Bernard Pivot. In several countries of the world (including

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

), the dictations are the subject of structured championships, similar to English

Korean

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, ''badasseugi'' (

Hangul The Korean alphabet is the modern writing system for the Korean language. In North Korea, the alphabet is known as (), and in South Korea, it is known as (). The letters for the five basic consonants reflect the shape of the speech organs ...

: 받아쓰기) is a school exercise for children in the lower grades of

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

s. The

Korean language Korean is the first language, native language for about 81 million people, mostly of Koreans, Korean descent. It is the national language of both South Korea and North Korea. In the south, the language is known as () and in the north, it is kn ...

is written using

hangul The Korean alphabet is the modern writing system for the Korean language. In North Korea, the alphabet is known as (), and in South Korea, it is known as (). The letters for the five basic consonants reflect the shape of the speech organs ...

, which is basically a

phonemic A phoneme () is any set of similar speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word from another. All languages con ...

alphabet; however, Hangul writing is also morphophonemic, so morphological knowledge (in addition to familiarity with hangul) is necessary for correct dictation. Also,

phonological Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often prefer ...

rules such as assimilation, palatalization, and deletion can cause pronunciation to be different from what the written form may suggest. ''Badasseugi'' may take form of a word, a phrase, or a sentence, and is similar to spelling tests.

Chinese

Dictation in Chinese (, literally means 'listen and write') is a vital part of Chinese primary school education curriculum.

Chinese characters Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...

are unique because a single syllable can have different corresponding characters. Since Chinese dictation is usually done in phrases (i.e. words are made up of more than one characters), this can help the person taking dictation to determine the proper character through phrases. Dictation also increases students' ability to write characters properly.

Vietnamese

Similar to the Korean hangul script, the Vietnamese Latin alphabet is also basically a phonemic alphabet; however, aside from mistakes in standardising the orthography of the language, Vietnamese dialects have some sound mergers (a few of which can be morphophonemically affected) that can confuse people, especially when talking to other people with a different dialect. Therefore, dictation in Vietnamese (), also considered a vital part of Vietnamese primary school education curriculum, helps students, and foreign Vietnamese learners, solve these ambiguities.

References

{{reflist Writing Language education