Using Dictation to Measure Language Proficiency

Abstract

Many teachers are faced with mixed-ability classes and have little information on the proficiency of their students. With group work being central to most pedagogies in second language acquisition, teachers may want to construct groups for specific purposes; knowledge of the relative proficiency of students is therefore very important. Although tools such as the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) are available, they may be expensive to implement, or results may be unavailable to the teacher. This paper discusses dictation tests as a possible way of measuring the relative proficiency of students and highlights the results of a study conducted in a university in Japan that used dictation as a test of proficiency and compared results with the TOEIC test. The authors explain how to design and conduct dictation in the classroom and demonstrate how dictation is a cheap, simple, and effective means of measuring language proficiency.