The Creative Dictation

In the digital classrooms, which have now become our ‘new norm’ we have to be careful not to simply transfer onsite classroom activities to the online context. This may be possible in some cases, with a few tweaks, so that the clarification of a language point done using a digital whiteboard can be done in much the same way as it could be done in an onsite classroom, but the technology in fact gives us the opportunity to do more. Many resources give us the option of sharing that whiteboard, so the layout may be designed as a gap filler, for instance, which can be used by students after class to review the work they have done. In EFL classrooms there are a whole range of activities that can be adapted for online use, which means we do not have to reinvent the wheel each time we plan a lesson but just think about how the particular activity can be altered to get the most out of it or to make it work best for our particular learners with our specific teaching aims in mind. To illustrate this here is one example of an activity and how it has evolved in our work at the University of Verona, over the years, providing more learning opportunities as it has grown. This particular resource is based on creative dictation, and I came across it in the eighties in Morgan and Rinvolucri’s inspiring book “Once Upon a Time” (1983, p. 63).