Students can benefit from modified form of dictation

I refer to the letter by Jeff Chung ("Dictation classes teach students to memorise, rather than understand", April 13).

While I share his distaste for dictation, I do not agree that the dictation exercise should be completely abolished.

In my former role as a native English-speaking teacher in a local school, dictation was an integral component of a regimen of assessment instruments inflicted each cycle. Students undergo "re-dictation" until they achieve a set threshold. The dictation passage is normally extracted and amended from the current reading unit and given to students a considerable time in advance.

Given the high-stakes nature and stressful climate of the exercise, students aided by parents spend agonising hours memorising text to be regurgitated while the teacher intones needlessly. Mr Chung decries this formulaic impostor that passes for dictation in Hong Kong.

It has minuscule pedagogic value and is a drain on time that could be spent more productively. Even worse, it fosters strong antipathy towards language learning. However, dictation should not be discarded altogether. This would be akin to throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Dictation can not only enhance listening skills but also enlarge vocabulary and convey a clearer understanding of the way these items function in accurate structures.