Abstract

This study evaluates the effectiveness of dictation practice as a pedagogical tool to enhance communicative skills among first-year English majored students at a university. Grounded in the principles of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and integrated skills theory, the study reexamines the role of dictation - often considered a traditional method in supporting the simultaneous development of listening, speaking, and overall communicative competence. Using a mixed-methods approach, the experiment was conducted through a series of dictation exercises over 12 weeks, involving 120 students. The findings demonstrate that dictation significantly improves listening accuracy, vocabulary retention, phonological awareness, and communicative confidence. The study affirms the potential of modern interactive dictation techniques such as dictogloss, contributing to a reconceptualization of dictation as an effective integrated communicative learning tool in both theory and pedagogy.

Keywords: Communication skills, communicative competence, dictation, dictogloss.