Listening ComprehensionListening ComprehensionMore theories and conceptsMore theories and concepts

Week 2, Wednesday, September 10Week 2, Wednesday, September 10

Traditional theories of listening comprehension

• Bottom-up listeningExample: 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.

• Top Down listeningExample: 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

Traditional theories of listening comprehension

Contemporary theories of listening comprehension

Successful listening depends on the ability to combine these two types of processing.

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.

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.