This is based on an activity in the classic book Dictation: New Methods New Possibilities, but I have expanded on the original idea and adapted it for particular language points.

Students listen to a list of words and race to guess the connection between those words. They can then label a written version with what the words have in common, and/ or test each other in the same way in groups. As an extension, you can also get them to brainstorm vocabulary in the same categories.

This is a great way of presenting and/ or revising a lot of vocabulary, but you’ll obviously need to spend more time on the more important words from the lists with other activities. It also takes forever to prepare, but it is a good way of putting together a whole load of useful vocabulary for a course. Alternatively, just try one of mine:

List dictation PDFs

Cambridge Proficiency Use of English collocations list dictation – NEW

IELTS Listening Part 1 list dictation 

Prepositions in Cambridge Proficiency list dictation guessing game (in this great value e-book)

C2 Proficiency Use of English Part Three list dictation (in this cheap as chips e-book)

Senses vocabulary list dictation

IELTS Speaking Part One vocabulary list dictation (in this very cheap e-book)

IELTS Speaking Part Two key words list dictation (in this really cheap e-book)

Describing processes list dictation (in this very reasonable e-book)

Key words for starting and ending emails list dictation (in this bargain e-book)

Vocabulary for describing British life list dictation

Engineering vocabulary list dictation

Clothes and accessories list dictation

Uncountable nouns list dictation

Sports list dictation and speaking

Architecture list dictation

English for designers list dictation

Media vocabulary list dictation

Updated 9 July 2025