As students develop their aural comprehension of meaning and also of the relationship among segments of language, they are learning grammar. Dictation helps to develop short-term memory. Students practice retaining meaningful phrases or whole sentences before writing them down. Practice in careful listening to dictation will be useful later on in note taking exercises. Correcting dictation can lead to oral communication.
Dictation can serve as an excellent review exercise.
Dictation is psychologically powerful and challenging. Dictation fosters unconscious thinking in the new language. If the students do well, dictation is motivating. Dictation involves the whole class, no matter how large it is. During and after the dictation, all the students are active.