Listening

Strategies
Listening
z is the ability to accurately receive and
interpret messages in the communication process. It
is a key to all effective communication. Without the
ability to listen effectively, messages are easily
misunderstood. Hence, as listening comprehension
is the basis for your speaking, writing and reading
skills it is important to listen actively, which means
to fully pay attention to what you are listening to in
order to train your listening skills.
 Below are the following purposes of listening:
z

• Listening for gist. You listen in order to

understand the main idea of the text.
• Listening for specific information. You want to
find out specific details, or example key words.
• Listening for detailed understanding. You want
to understand all the information the text provides.
Top-Down
z Listening Strategy
Top down listening happens when we use
background knowledge to make sense of what we are
listening to. We already know a fair amount about the
topic, and the story or information we are getting fits
into a previously established schema (the knowledge
the listener already has about the world and about
certain types of discourse (Anderson & Lynch
1988:13).
It focuses
z
on the ‘big’ picture and general
meaning of a listening text. Often the starting
point is to discuss the topic and then to use a
‘gist’ or ‘extensive’ task to listen for the
overall meaning.
Top-down listening strategies include listening
for main idea, predicting, drawing inferences
and summarizing
Bottom-Up
z
Listening Strategy
Bottom-up listening happens when we
understand language sound by sound or word by
word, with less use of background knowledge. It
focuses on listening for details and involve tasks
that focus on understanding at a sound or word
level. Tasks are ‘intensive’, as they focus on
looking for particular details.
Bottom-up strategies include
z

listening for specific details,

recognizing cognates and
recognizing word-order
patterns.
Example:
z

That evening, another friend calls to

invite you to a party at her house the
following Saturday. As you’ve never
been to her house before, she gives you
directions. You listen carefully and make
notes.
In this example, understanding the
z

exact words when listening to the

directions to a party is likely to be more
important. You are not familiar with the
area so you need to interpret the data/
information based on what you already
listened.