Key Stage 3 languages · Linguistic competence

KS3 languages dictation: writing down what you hear

Transcription means writing down words and short sentences that you hear. At Key Stage 3, pupils are taught to do this with increasing accuracy, which is why dictation turns up in many languages lessons. It checks whether a child connects the sounds of the language to its spelling, accents and grammar, and it improves both listening and writing at the same time.

Dictation and transcription, explained

The National Curriculum asks pupils to transcribe words and short sentences they hear with increasing accuracy, alongside listening to spoken language to obtain information and respond appropriately. In the classroom, this is dictation. The teacher reads a sentence, often once at natural speed, then in short chunks while pupils write, and then a third time so they can check. The language is the one your child’s school teaches, and the examples here are in French and Spanish.

Dictation is demanding because it uses several skills at once. Pupils must understand what they hear, hold it in memory, work out the spelling from the sound and apply grammar. In languages with a close link between sound and spelling, such as Spanish, much of this can be done by learning the spelling patterns: the letter h is silent (hermano), b and v sound the same, and qu is pronounced like k (que, quince). French is harder, because many letters on the page are silent, and several different spellings share the same sound.

This is where grammar becomes important. In French, “il parle” and “ils parlent” sound identical, so the listener has to use the meaning and the context to decide whether the subject is plural and the ending is -e or -ent. The same applies to plural endings with a silent s, and to pairs such as et and est, or son and sont, that sound the same. Children learn to ask “who is doing this?” and “is it plural?” to decide the spelling. Accents must also be added, because é, è and ê, or a and à, are part of the correct spelling.

Teachers use dictation in different ways. It might be a few single words, a short sentence or a line from a text the class has learned. Sometimes it is a “spot the difference” task, where children listen and correct a written version. It also helps pronunciation, because a child who writes what they hear tends to pay attention to how words really sound. Over Years 7 to 9 the passages become longer and the vocabulary wider, though they remain short.

When marking dictation, teachers usually look first at whether the words have been correctly recognised and then at accuracy, such as accents and endings. A mistake in dictation tells the teacher exactly what has not been understood, so it is useful information for the next lesson, not a failure. Knowing the alphabet in the language, which has its own letter names, also helps when spelling aloud.

Words your child will hear

Dictation: A task in which someone reads out a text and you write it down exactly as spoken.
Transcribe: To write down in words what you hear.
Sound-spelling link: The relationship between how a letter or group of letters is pronounced and how the sound is written.
Silent letter: A letter that is written but not pronounced, like the h in Spanish hermano or the final -ent of a French verb.
Homophone: Words that sound the same but are spelled differently and mean different things, like et (and) and est (is).
Accent: A mark on a letter that is part of the correct spelling, such as é in école or á in papá.
Elision: Dropping a vowel before another vowel and replacing it with an apostrophe, such as l’école for la école.

What the National Curriculum says

In Key Stage 3, pupils should be taught to:

Transcribe words and short sentences that they hear with increasing accuracy
Listen to a variety of forms of spoken language to obtain information and respond appropriately

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: taking a French dictation

The teacher reads this sentence three times and the pupil has to write it down. What the pupil hears is roughly “mé-za-mi a-bit a-ko-té duh lé-kol”. Write the correct spelling.

First hearing: listen without writing, just for meaning. It is about someone’s friends and where they live, near the school. Knowing the meaning helps to pick the right words when the sounds are ambiguous.
Second hearing, in chunks: write each chunk. “Mé-za-mi” has to be “mes amis” (my friends). The z sound is a liaison between the s of mes and the a of amis. A pupil who writes “mais” has the wrong word: mais means but, and the meaning does not fit.
Choose the verb ending using grammar. The subject “mes amis” is plural, so the verb is “habitent”. The final -ent cannot be heard at all, but it is needed because the subject is plural. Writing “habite” would be wrong.
Add accents and the apostrophe. “À côté de” needs the grave accent on à, and côté needs both a circumflex and an acute accent. “L’école” has an acute accent and an apostrophe, because la loses its vowel before the e of école. These marks are part of the spelling.
Third hearing: check. Read the sentence back for a capital letter at the start and a full stop at the end, and check that every word makes sense.

Mes amis habitent à côté de l’école.

Common mistakes and how to help

Writing French or Spanish using English spelling rules

A child writes the sounds the way they would in English, so “école” becomes “ekol” or Spanish “queso” becomes “keso”. The sounds are right, but the spelling system is different.

What helps: Practise the sound-spelling patterns of the language, such as that Spanish qu is pronounced k, and Spanish h is silent. A short list of common patterns on a card helps.

Leaving out silent endings

If you cannot hear it, you do not write it. So the plural s, the -ent of verbs and the final e of feminine adjectives are all lost, even though they are a big part of French grammar.

What helps: Before writing a word, ask who is doing the action and whether it is singular or plural. Agreement has to come from the child’s grammar, not from the ears.

Forgetting the accents

In English, accents are rare, so they do not seem like part of the word. Yet a, à, ou, où, papa and papá all differ only in an accent.

What helps: When learning a new word, say the letters, including accents, as part of the spelling. Practise adding them to a plain version of the sentence in a final check.

Giving up when one word is missed

A child who misses a word often loses the next two or three while trying to work it out, and the sentence falls apart.

What helps: Leave a gap, keep writing, and come back at the second or third hearing. A gap is better than losing the rest of the sentence.

How to help at home

Record and write. Ask your child to record themselves reading three sentences from their book on a phone. The next day, they listen and write the sentences, then check against the book. They get the benefit of dictation without anyone needing to know the language.
Swap dictation with a sibling or friend. Each person reads a short sentence slowly in chunks, twice. The other writes it. Then compare. Reading aloud clearly is good pronunciation practice too.
Spell it aloud. Learn the names of the letters in the language, then spell out words, names and places to each other. It helps with listening for single letters and for accents, which are often named separately.
Spot the pairs that sound alike. Make a short list of sound-alike words your child confuses, such as et and est, or son and sont. Write sentences using each, and then read them aloud to check that your child can choose the right spelling from the meaning.