According to Vandergrift and Goh (2012:54) listening comprehension is an active process

Listeners analyze what they hear and interpret it on the basis of linguistic knowledge and their

knowledge of the topic. There is that we have to know when people listen or read we process the

infomation we hear both bottom-up and top-down.

The first the bottom-up is first processing that is used by listeners in understanding

spoken discourse. Bottom-up processing means using the information we have about sounds,

word meanings and discourse markers like first, then and after that to assemble our

understanding of what we read or hear one step at a time (Brown, 2006:2). Listener’s lexical and

grammatical competences in a language provide the basis for bottom-up processing (Richards.

2008:4).

The second the top-down is second processing that is used by listeners in understanding

spoken discourse. Top-down processing means using our prior knowledge and experiences

(Brown. 2006. p. 2). In this processing the listener uses prior knowledge of the context and

situation that include such things as knowledge of the topic at hand the speakers and their

relationship to the situation as well as to each other and prior events (Richard & Renandya.

2002:239).

So, listening comprehension is more than just hearing what native speaker said, it is

students” ability to understand the meaning of the words they hear and to relate to them in some

ways such as prior linguistic and non linguistic knowledge. Bottom up processing concerns

segmentation of the sound stream (phonemes or sound and intonation such as stress. tone. and

rhythm) into meaningful units to decipher the message. On the other hand top-down processing

concerns the application of context (event or topic of a listening text) and prior knowledge
(world or experimental knowledge. pragmatic knowledge and cultural knowledge) to decipher

the message.