Dictées in the French Second Language Classroom: Prevalence, Perceptions, and Findings

Views about the role that dictées should play in the French L2 classroom vary widely. This article presents a look at past research on this topic, as well as the results of a survey of 374 French instructors regarding their use of and views on dictées. The survey revealed that an overwhelming majority of college/university instructors use dictées, but for different reasons. Instructors articulated rationale for or against incorporating this technique. An overview of the literature shows that there is little empirical research on dictées, and those studies that exist indicate the effectiveness of dictées is unclear.