Transcription involves listening to an
audio recording and writing down every
word. The fact that it is done from
recordings means the students can replay
the sections they have difficulty with as
many times as they like, but the delivery is
always the same. It can, therefore, provide
excellent training in understanding
features of connected speech, so long as
natural-sounding texts are chosen.
Transcription is not a whole-class activity
led by the teacher: it is personal. In this
way, it lends itself to being done at home
because it is important to be able to spend
as much time as you need. However, there
are ways of adapting it for classroom use,
as we will see.