Dictation may seem an old-fashioned way to teach English as a Second Language. But it can offer an interesting way to engage the students in vocabulary, listening, writing and pronunciation skills. Students have the challenge of writing down what they hear. You may want to incorporate dictation into your class to teach grammar and other aspects of ESL.

Select a text that is appropriate for the level of your class. Children's books work well. If you decide to use a children's book, select one that teaches something about American history or culture. Your students will appreciate this.

Read the entire text at a reasonably slow speed. Next, break each sentence into phrases or groups of two or three words that you read to your students. You may repeat each phrase a few times, especially if your class is new to dictation. The goal is to reduce the amount of phrases and train your students to hear complete sentences read just once or twice.

After you dictate a paragraph, write it on the board. Allow time for your students to copy the paragraph and make corrections to what they initially wrote down.

Each paragraph opens possibilities for different grammar lessons. Ask the students what tense the dictated paragraph is written in. If it is written in the past tense, you might have your students rewrite the paragraph in the present or future tense. The paragraph may contain contractions that can be taught, or include quotes, or other aspects that you can use to teach for the grammar point of the day.

You can use dictation for the basis of a conversation class. Select a text that will stir your students into conversation. For example, a text might discuss gang violence, immigration, American foods or health care, topics for which most students have opinions.

Use dictation to get a point across. For example, if your students aren't doing as well as you think they can because they complain they don't have time to study, you can use a simple time management article as a way to introduce solutions to your students' problem. Use this as the basis to start a discussion about making time to study.

Have fun and select interesting topics for dictation. This is an effective way to introduce your students to topics that don't always fit into a traditional ESL curriculum.