'Bottom-up' and 'top-down' Like 'bottom-up' processing, 'top-down' is more
complex than is sometimes suggested. Contextual In accounts of foreign-language listening and information can come from many different reading, perceptual information is often sources: from knowledge of the speaker/writer or described as 'bottom-up', while information from knowledge of the world; from analogy with a provided by context is said to be 'top-down'. previous situation or from the meaning that has The terms have been borrowed from cognitive been built up so far. It can be derived from a psychology, but derive originally from computer schema, an expectation set up before reading or science, where they distinguish processes that are listening; it can take the form of spreading
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For accounts of the role of bottom-up and top- The author down processes in LI reading, see Oakhill and John Field has a long-term interest in skills Garnham (1988), and Chapters 2-3 of Perfetti approaches in ELT. His publications include (1985). Currently, the most influential model of LI listening and study skills materials, a BBC radio listening is the fully-interactive Cohort Model series for beginners, distance-learning materials (Marslen-Wilson 1987). for Chinese television, and national secondary school coursebooks for Saudi Arabia. He has References trained teachers in Europe, the Middle East, the Goodman, K. S. 1970.: 'Reading: A psycholinguis- Far East, and Africa. He is about to complete a tic guessing game' in H. Singer and R. B. PhD on listening at Cambridge University, and Ruddell (eds.). Theoretical Models and Pro- lectures on the MA course in ELT and Applied cesses of Reading. Newark, DE: International Linguistics at Kings College London. Reading Association. E-mail: jcfl000@dircon.co.uk