If you're looking for a way to practice English which is easy, effective, doesn't take too much time, lets you practice writing, listening comprehension, and spelling, then dictations are the answer to all of your questions!

You've undoubtedly done some when you were at school or at university and you most likely found them painful, hard, and even annoying at the time, but now, there's nothing stopping you from doing short and interesting dictations. They will help you to better understand spoken English and to write better.

Today I will present to you several sites to do dictation, They're free and have a ton of content.

The sites are categorized according to the accent of the native speaker, so choose your favorite accent (but do try and change things up, so you can get used to all of them):

American English

English Club

Using this site is without a doubt one of the best ways to make the most out of those 10-15 minutes you spend in the public transport. The great thing about doing dictations in English is that your efforts will add up and your spelling and comprehension will improve dramatically, over a relatively short period of time.

Practice English with dictations

You can choose your level, between beginner (short recordings of one or two lines), intermediate (recordings of one or two phrases) or advanced, with long recordings of one or two paragraphs.

Rong-Chang

This site is pretty easy to use - you have access to 200 short dictation exercises! The advantage of this site is that once you've entered your text in the small square, you get instant feedback, so you can see your mistakes and learn from them.

Rong-Chang - dictations in English

English Express YES!

Despite all of its ads, this site offers a lot of content, with four levels, transcriptions for the dictations and a vocabulary list! You have a wide selection of topics, from basic ones like descriptions of people to advanced ones, like the nutritional value of peanuts!

Here's how you can choose a level:

English dictation exercises

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Learn American English online

The level system on this site is a bit... unusual!

Instead of the usual levels beginner, intermediate, and advanced, you have the levels blue, red, etc. - as if you're doing karate!

In order to start, choose your level. Then you'll have access to a long list of dictations. You can then choose a title that you like.

English dictations online

Click on the play button, listen and... to your keyboard. To see the transcription/ correction of the dictations, you need to click on the fruit on the right (depending on the level, that can be an apple, an orange, a lemon, etc.).

Dictation texts in English

You'll quickly get used to the little quirks of this site. You can then enjoy the rich content the site has to offer.

British English

For all the fans of England, those who plan to go there or simply prefer the British version of English, here are a few sites to help you better understand British English:

Breaking News English

This site offers texts on current events, so you can practice English and inform yourself about what's happening in the world at the same time. What's more, it's regularly updated, so you'll find a new dictation every two to three days.

ESL dictations

learnenglish.de

For beginner and intermediate learners, this site offers interesting texts, often talking about English culture. You can even choose the speed of the recording. That's quite practical, because you can listen to the slower version of the audio to do the dictations, then, once you know all of the news words and expressions, you can listen to it like a podcast in normal speed, to check.

Easy dictations in English

Other accents

Victoria.ac.nz

You can see the different levels at the top of the page:

Dictations in various English accents

Once you choose your level, you can listen to high-quality texts on interesting topics like the Pacific, endangered species or ancient civilizations.

Have you heard the Kiwi accent before? This is the slang term English speakers use to say New-Zealand. This is the perfect opportunity to discover it by doing a few dictations on this site.

YouTube

If you don't really like any of these sites, you can always just use good old YouTube! We've gathered some of the best dictations on YouTube into playlists:

Dictations in American English

Dictations in British English

Dictations in other dialects and accents

Unfortunately, we couldn't find dictations made by people from Australia, Scotland, Wales or other accents which are less popular. If you know any, leave a comment to help us complete our list!

In order to progress quickly, do one or two dictations per day. Be consistent and your work will pay off. You'll never hear English the same way!

See also

In addition to dictations in English, you can also quickly improve your listening comprehension, with the following resources:

• How to improve your listening comprehension in English, one of the most popular articles on our blog.
• Our interactive infographic, which help you learn all of the sounds of American English.
• Click & Speak: our interactive, intelligent, and innovative course, which will allow you to master 96 % of spoken English!