Listening Comprehension

More theories and concepts

Week 2, Wednesday, September 10
 Traditional theories of listening
comprehension
• Bottom-up listening
Example: listening to directions from a friend on how to get
to his/her house. This kind of listening comprehension is
achieved by dividing and decoding the sounds - bit by bit.
The ability to separate the stream of speech into individual
words becomes more important here, if we are to
recognise, for example, the name of a street or instructions
on how to take a particular bus.
Understanding vocabulary and other specific parts of speech
is also very important for this kind of listening.
 Traditional theories of listening
comprehension
• Top Down listening
Example: listening to a friend tell a story about a terrible
vacation in Thailand during rainy season with a mutual friend.
This kind of listening requires the use of background
knowledge in understanding the meaning of the message.
Background knowledge consists of context.
Do you ever get your students to predict the content of a listening
beforehand, maybe using information about the topic or
situation, pictures, or key words? If so, you are helping them
to develop their top-down processing skills.

Source: British Council

 Contemporary theories of listening
comprehension

The “old school” way of teaching was bottom-up but then

shifted to more top-down listening processes. There are good
reasons for this given that learners need to be able to listen
effectively even when faced with unfamiliar vocabulary or
structures but nowadays most educators agree that it should be a
mix of both processes.
Successful listening depends on the ability to combine these
two types of processing.
 Good listening materials can be:

• Reciprocal (two way)

- Another way of characterizing listening is in terms of whether
the listener is also required to take part in the interaction. This
is known as reciprocal listening.

- Reciprocal listening is face-to-face

- The listener has the opportunity to answer back, clarify

understanding, or check that he or she has comprehended
correctly.
 Good listening materials can be:

• Non-reciprocal (one way)

- In non-reciprocal listening the listener is not required to
participate.

- Non-reciprocal listening tasks can draw on a rich variety of

authentic data, not just lectures and text-book dialogues.

- Some examples of non-reciprocal listening materials are:

answering machine messages, store announcements,
announcements on public transportation, mini lectures, and
narrative recounts.
 Good listening materials can be:

• Extensive
- Listening for main ideas – just getting the gist. “Does the
speaker have a positive or negative opinions about Italian
food?” is an example of a question we could ask in an
extensive listening activity.

- Listening without being constrained by pre-set questions or

tasks.

- Listening at or below one's comfortable fluent listening

ability. No difficult tasks.
 Good listening materials can be:

• Intensive
- Involves more detailed analysis of the language used or
listening for specific information. “What is the speakers
favourite Italian food?” is an example of a question we
could ask in an intensive listening activity.

- Intensive listening is also used for the study of a language

point: finding adjectives or highlighting specific grammar
forms, for example.