120 hr. TEFL Course Module 6-Listening (Pt.5 Word-for-Word)

6.1.4 Word-for-word transcription

When you would like to have your students practice with words rather than just sounds, you should work with them on word transcriptions, which are exactly what they sound like. Students listen to a person speaking (or a recording) and transcribe the speech as it is spoken. Let’s go through the steps you should have your students take to transcribe speech.

1. Select or provide a text that already has a transcription. There is no way to assess your students unless you have an answer key. You can either hold onto the correct transcription yourself to assess them or give it to them so that they can check their work and self-correct. When they are working towards mastery, it is probably better to give them the transcription, and when you are ready to assess their mastery, it is probably better to assess them yourself.

2. Have the students listen to the speech once. If you are delivering the speech, read it through once, instructing them not to write anything yet but only to listen. If the students have a recording, instruct them to listen to it in their own once through before they do anything.
3. Have your students transcribe the speech line by line. It would be more helpful if they have a recording of the speech so that they are able to go back and listen again when they need to. However, you may want to simply speak the text when your students have progressed to the point where they are strong enough to handle it. Here are some tips that might help them:
   • If you have the opportunity, use a digital recording so that it is easier for the students to go back and forth and keep track of their progress.
   • Have the students write their transcriptions by hand to have a closer connection to the words they are writing. Also, handwriting the transcriptions means they will not have access to grammar and spelling software that will help them along the way but ultimately hurt their learning.
   • Allow the students to use a dictionary whenever they need to. Not only will this provide a reference piece to help them, but it will also give the students practice looking up words in a dictionary.
   • Do not limit the number of times your students can rewind or listen to parts of the recording again. Even native English speakers would have trouble transcribing a piece word for word without listening to it more than once.
   • Encourage your students to transcribe the piece word for word, but then look through their transcription to fix errors in grammar and usage even when those errors were made by the original speaker. This will give the students practice transcribing the piece and also give them the opportunity to practice their revision skills and access their knowledge of grammar.