Scribe – Dictées

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Practice dictation with Yabla

Dictées, or dictation exercises, are excellent for working on your French listening comprehension as well as spelling, vocabulary, and grammar all at the same time. The task is simple enough: listen to an audio file and type what you hear, then compare that with the transcript. You can do this on your own with my listening comprehension exercises and any other audio source that is accompanied by a transcript.

Another option is Scribe, by Yabla, a very sophisticated program that provides real-time feedback as you listen and type, highlighting errors and omissions. Scribe is integrated with Yabla’s video player, so you can choose between five levels of French, control the audio speed, and see the translation at any time.

Screenshot

Try Scribe

Want to give it a try? Here’s how:

• Click one of the links below to open Yabla in a new tab or window.
• Click the thumbnail to start the video.
• Click the "Games" button.
• Select "Scribe."
• Listen and type what you hear.

Dictation Tips

The audio is broken up into short sections. If you have trouble hearing or understanding any section, you can

• Replay the audio as many times as you like.
• Slow it down to 75% or 50%.
• Click "reveal translation" to make sense of what you’re hearing.

There are accent buttons available for your convenience (if you don’t already know how to type accents everywhere).

After you finish each audio section, you can click any underlined words to see your first incorrect attempts, then move onto the next section.

Dictées

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