ABSTRACT
The effectiveness of dictation on written English was important for learners of English as a second language especially those who are faced with difficulties in writing words and sentences. This study determined the effect of dictation on the written English performance of JSS 3 students in Jigawa state. The variables studied include word spelling, sentence construction and paragraph formation. Three research questions were set and answered. Three hypotheses were also postulated and tested in the study. Experimental research design was adopted for the study. The population consisted of one thousand and five hundred (1500) JSS III students in Jigawa State for the 2013/2014 academic session out of which one hundred and fifty (150) students were randomly sampled which were equally assigned as experimental and control groups. The research instruments used were two essay topics administered to both groups during pre and post tests respectively. The treatment procedures included six dictation lessons which were conducted in six weeks for experimental group only. Descriptive statistics of mean, range and percentage were used to answer the research questions and inferential statistics of independent t-test was used to compare the performance of both groups at 0.05 significant level. The results indicated that teaching dictation had significant effects on sentence and paragraph components of written English. However, the study found no significant effect on teaching dictation on spelling component. It was therefore concluded that dictation could be recognized as a communicative language activity to promote performance of students in using several components of writing such as sentence construction. The study recommended some dictation strategies for teaching and learning of English as a second language. These include "dicto-fill", "dicto-comp","split dictation and so on.