TOP DOWN:

 the listener uses background knowledge of the topic to make sense of what she/he is
listening to.

 The listener already knows a fair amount of information about the topic and he/she is
able to relate a story or information into a prior knowledge.

 Examples: listening for main idea, making predictions, drawing inferences,

summarizing, taking down notes.

BOTTOM-UP:

 the listener attempts to make sense of the language sound by sound or word by word,
with less use of background knowledge.

 The listener relies on the language in the message (sounds, words, grammar) that
creates the meaning.

 Examples: listening for specific details, recognizing word-order patterns, recognizing

word sounds, recognizing cognates.