1.

Listening:
1. When we are dealing with some listening texts, for example, a set of instructions or a waiter
explaining what's in a dish, it's important that we understand nearly everything.  If miss
something important we may make a serious mistake or get the wrong meal.
Some listening settings allow us to interrupt and ask for clarification or repetition, e.g., the
work instructions or the waiter's explanation.  Some settings, such as lectures, don't allow
that, so it's important to be even more careful.
This is called intensive listening.
2. Typically, in a TV news programme, people will watch and listen quite casually until a key
word or picture alerts them to an item of interest.  Then they switch listening mode and pay
more attention.  Travel announcements are often dealt with this way.  If we recognise that
the announcement does not concern our journey, we just switch off until the next one comes
along.
This kind of listening is called monitor listening.
3. A TV soap opera or an anecdote might require some attention but as long as we get the gist
of what's going on, it isn't usually necessary (or possible) to catch every word and every
nuance.  Typically, an anecdote is told face-to-face or over the 'phone so in this case we
also need occasionally to show interest and comprehension.  We do that through what's
called back channelling (grunts, exclamations such as oh, really?, wow, gosh etc., nods,
smiles etc.).
We are gist listening.  This is also known as extensive listening because we do not need
to understand everything we hear.
4. Finally, some texts require our full attention, even to the point of making notes to help us
recall important information.  Here, we need particularly to pay attention to the speaker's
signals.  For example, something beginning
    Here's the key point: ...
is likely to be important but something beginning
    By the way, ...
can probably be safely ignored.
This is a difficult skill because it combines monitoring, listening for gist and intensive
listening.
2. Reading:
1. When we are dealing with some written texts, for example, a recipe or a set of instructions,
it's important that we understand nearly everything.  If the book says twist anti-
clockwise or do not allow it to boil, it's important that we get it right.  Fortunately, when we
read, we can usually take the time to re-read as often as we like and use a dictionary when
we don't understand.
Typically, study texts (such as this one) or texts with very important information (instructions
at work, information about finance and tax and so on) also require this approach.  We may
even have to take notes!
This is intensive reading.
2. Typically, on a news website, people will run their eyes across the links looking for a story
that interests them and then access the text for a more detailed look at the information.
Even when we are quite interested in a story, we still often won't read every word, preferring
to skip to the important (for us) bits of the story.
Similarly, other texts, such a bus timetable require us just to look for what we need.  We
can't usually just read from top to bottom, left to right because we don't want the information
from most of the text.  We only want to know when the next bus goes to where we want to
be.  If you are looking for a name in a telephone directory, you don't start at page one and
read till you find it.
This is called scanning or scan reading.
3. Depending on how much we are engaged, reading a novel requires a different approach,
too.  We will usually read with some care and even back-track to re-read sections but we can
ignore parts of the text and simply follow the story.  If we are getting a bit bored, we may
even start to glance through the text to find out what happened in the story.
Ignoring whole parts and just getting the gist is called skimming or skim reading.  This is
also called extensive reading because it is not necessary to understand every word.
Top-down processing
concerns
using your knowledge of the world in general to understand what you read or hear.  For example, if
you know that penguins live in the Antarctic, you know that a text about them will not mention North
Africa but you will be alert to words like snow, ice, Weddell Sea and so on.
using your knowledge of typical text layout and staging to locate specific information.  You did this at
the beginning of the guide.
using your knowledge of the topic to help you understand.  For example, if you are an expert
gardener, you will know how to do a lot of things with plants and can recognise words like dibber,
wheelbarrow, shears, espalier etc. so can focus on the new material in a text (spoken or written).

Bottom-up processing concerns using your formal linguistic knowledge of:

the pronunciation of English to distinguish, e.g., between pin and bin.
lexis and how it is pronounced to understand meaning in a written or spoken text.
intonation to understand a speaker's emotional state and intention.
the grammar of the language to distinguish, e.g., between
    He arrived
and
    He has arrived
conjunctions, cohesive devices such as pronouns and sequencers to identify connections and
relationships between ideas.
1. I am looking at a bus timetable and want to know when the next bus leaves for Margate

A.   ?    skim reading

B.   ?    gist reading

C.   ?    intensive reading

D.   ?    scan reading

2. I am reading short story and want to know where the main character was born.

A.   ?    Scanning and then intensive reading

B.   ?    Skimming

C.   ?    Skimming and then intensive reading

D.   ?    Reading for gist

3. I am watching a favourite TV soap opera to see if Mary is really pregnant.

A.   ?    Monitor listening for a name and watching for a face

B.   ?    Intensive listening

C.   ?    Listening for gist

4. I am listening to an important instruction from my boss talking to a large meeting.

A.   ?    Monitor listening

B.   ?    Listening for a particular word

C.   ?    Intensive listening

D.   ?    Gist listening

5. I am reading the instructions for the first time about how to use a chain saw.

A.   ?    intensive reading

B.   ?    skim reading

C.   ?    scanning

D.   ?    gist reading
6. I am at an airport and want to know which gate number is for the flight to Malaga. I hear an announcement
starting.

A.   ?    monitor listening

B.   ?    gist listening

C.   ?    skim listening

D.   ?    intensive listening

7. I am trying to find something interesting to watch on television tomorrow by looking in the TV Magazine.

A.   ?    skim reading

B.   ?    gist reading

C.   ?    scan reading

D.   ?    Intensive reading

8. I am listening to a national radio weather forecast and I want to go for a walk in my area tomorrow morning.

A.   ?    Monitoring and then intensive listening

B.   ?    Listening for gist

C.   ?    Intensive listening

9. Is this article about Korean culture? It's not in the title.

A.   ?    Skimming

B.   ?    Reading for gist

C.   ?    Scanning for 'Korea'

D.   ?    Reading the Abstract intensively

10. I want to know if this newspaper news story tells me about the storms in my country.

A.   ?    Scanning

B.   ?    Intensive reading

C.   ?    Reading for gist

D.   ?    Skimming
skim reading

bottom-up processing

NO MATCH!

monitoring

extensive reading

scanning

top-down processing

looking quickly through the text to get the main ideas

using my knowledge of subordinating conjunctions to understand

causes

asking for clarification

running my eye over the text to locate particular data

reading a longer text for the main ideas only

using my knowledge of the topic and text type to locate information

quickly

listening out for a particular word or phrase