Modern listening exercises usually focus on helping students to extract the overall meaning of a listening passage, but most language teachers will agree that an occasional dictation with a focus on individual words can be very useful in developing listening comprehension. The first is bottom-up processing where the listener builds up the sounds into words, sentences and meaning. The second is top-down processing where the listener uses background knowledge to understand the meaning of a message. Practicing both of these processes is essential for developing listening compehension.
Dictation focuses on bottom-up processing.
As the sounds enter the ear, the listener uses his knowledge of grammar and vocabulary to decode the message. This linking of sounds to internal knowledge can lead to an improvement in listening ability. There are several reasons why songs can be useful. First, one of the main reasons that teachers do not use more dictation is that it is so unpopular with students. Students get bored very quickly.