Dictation is not only a means of language testing, but also a teaching method. As a traditional teaching method, word dictation has been widely used in foreign language teaching in China. This study improved the traditional task of word dictation and carried on an empirical experiment, trying to verify its effect on college English vocabulary acquisition. The results show that the complex word dictation has positive effects on vocabulary acquisition. The research also shows that the form of word interpretation is closely related to learning effects, and teachers are suggested to guide students to adjust their learning strategies to improve learning efficiency.