Dictation is listening to someone speaking and then trying to write what you hear.
Practicing dictation can help improve your:
- English listening skills
- Grammar
- Writing and Punctuation
- Spelling
- Speaking and pronunciation (if you speak the words you hear – out loud – while you’re writing it)
The EnglishClub website has a good collection of dictation exercises, at 3 different levels of difficulty. Here’s an example:
1. Listen to the dictation at normal speed (just listen; don’t try to write it).
2. Listen again at slow speed and try to write/type what your hear (with a smartphone, you need to use paper).
Include capitalization and punctuation.
3. Listen again at slow speed if you need to.
4. Listen at normal speed for a last check.
5. When you’re ready, click/press Show Answer and compare the answer to your writing.
(The mailbox is just behind the big water fountain.)
When you watch a video in English (TV show, movie, YouTube, etc), you can often choose to display the English words at the bottom of your screen – as they are being spoken. This is called 
