<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">In our EAP program, we include dictation as part of our listening assessment. One thing I've noticed is that errors seem to cluster together. I'd like to see if this is more than just a vague impression from marking too many tests. What kind of tools and statistics might be used to show whether something's happening here?<div><br></div><div>I suppose one thing I could do is simply count the number of error-free words that are followed by an error and compare that to the number of errors that are followed by an error. I remember though some ways for measuring "burstiness", and I wonder if that might be relevant. Any thoughts?<br><br><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><div>Best,</div><div>Brett</div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div><<a href="http://english-jack.blogspot.com">http://english-jack.blogspot.com</a>></div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div>-----------------------</div><div>Brett Reynolds</div><div>English Language Centre</div><div>Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning</div><div>Toronto, Ontario, Canada</div><div><a href="mailto:brett.reynolds@humber.ca">brett.reynolds@humber.ca</a></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span></span></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></div></body></html>