Listening is a very important skill in English. But often, we listen for the main idea and not for all the specific words. That is good enough for many situations. But as you develop in English, it's important to recognize and understand every word in a sentence.
To help you practice distinguishing every word, we have created a listening exercise with each Story.
How it works
The Dictation exercise is an independent activity that tests your listening. Watch the video to see how it works:
Where to find it
Find the Dictation exercise next to any Story. (Select a Story from the Stories Library.)
Click on the tab called "Activities." Then click on the line called "Listening":
What to do
First, make sure your computer's speakers are on and that you can hear audio from your browser.
Next, click or tap the speaker icon on the first line:
You'll hear one complete sentence. As you're listening, write what you hear in the box. Repeat the exercise on the second line:
When you're done, press "Check" to see if you correctly wrote each word.
If you made a mistake, click "Show solution" to see what you got wrong:
Having trouble?
If you're having trouble with the Dictation exercise, try the following:
Make sure your computer volume is unmuted and you can hear audio from your browser. (Open YouTube on a new tab to confirm you can hear audio.)
The Dictation exercise works on multiple browsers, but users find it is most reliable on Chrome. If you are using another browser, try using Chrome.
If you are on an iOS device like an iPhone or iPad, try this exercise on a laptop or desktop.
Tips for doing the Dictation exercise
The audio in the dictation exercise is slow enough for you to understand each word clearly. Still, you may not be able to type and recognize each word fast enough. You can click the speaker button and listen to the audio multiple times.
The mistakes are calculated automatically. Note your mistakes and ask yourself:
Did I make this mistake because I mis-heard or mis-identified the word?
Did I simply make a spelling mistake?
Was the mistake because of capitalization or punctuation?
This is a listening exercise, so don't worry too much about mistakes related to capitalization or punctuation. Instead, focus on those mistakes where you mis-heard a word or wrote a word incorrectly.
Finally, spend just a few minutes on each Dictation exercise. There's one by every Story, so after you finish one Dictation exercise, you can do another relatively quickly.