1. Skills of listening: Top-down and bottom-up processing
Module 3
Activity 2

2. Brainstorm
Think about your typical day. What are the different contexts and purposes that you experience every day for listening?

3. Brainstorm: Feedback Perhaps some of these contexts are: Conversation
Discussions
Phone calls
TV shows

4. Listening
Listening is an active process that is made up of many skills and sub skills. Depending on the context, the skills and sub skills required may be different. For example, the skills required for conversational listening are different from the skills required for academic listening.

5. Overview
In this presentation, we will learn about the following: 1. Similarities and differences between listening and reading 2. Bottom-up and top-down processing in listening 3. Listening assessment

6. Similarities and differences between listening and reading
Assessing Listening
Similarities and differences between listening and reading

7. Reflect
Think about the differences and similarities between reading and listening. Based on these, which type of assessment (listening or reading) do you think is more difficult for students? Why?

8. Reflect
There are a variety of individual factors that contribute to whether a reading or listening test is more difficult for students. During this lesson you will learn about features of listening that may help you understand why students struggle with listening, and how you can select or create listening tests that are valid and reliable.

9. Listening versus Reading (1)
Grammatical knowledge
Specific grammar and vocabulary knowledge
Listeners remember the information in a text- not the specific grammar and vocabulary used to express it
Mental processes (top-down and bottom-up processing)
Both
Reliance on memory No
Yes

10. Listening versus Reading (2)
Features of the input
Written texts
Aural texts influenced by rate of speech, accent of the speaker, length, etc.
Speed of processing
Not constrained by time
Process a large amount of information very rapidly
Social dimension
Intrapersonal
Intrapersonal or interpersonal
Interactional aspect
Non-interactive
Interactive

11. Listening Assessment
Listening is one of the most difficult skills to assess.
Listening happens in real time, and so the processing has to be automatic.

12. Top-down Processing Bottom-up Processing
Listening Assessment
Top-down Processing Bottom-up Processing

13. Brainstorm
Listening is made up of different abilities. Think about these different abilities and write them down.

14. Brainstorm: Feedback
There are countless abilities you could have written down. Here are a few examples: 1. The ability to understand spoken vocabulary 2. The ability to understand phonological knowledge 3. The ability to understand inferred meanings 4. The ability to follow a topic of discussion 5. The ability to understand a speaker’s attitude

15. Assessing Listening
When we think about assessing listening, we think about the different abilities that go into listening and we try to assess those. For our purposes, we will categorize these abilities as requiring either bottom-up processing or top-down processing.

16. Assessing Listening
One way to think about the difference between bottom-up and top- down processes is to imagine a house. The roof of a house covers the entire house. The foundation is made up of separate bricks that work together to provide support.

17. Assessing Listening
Like a roof, top-down processes help the listener understand the entire message. Like a foundation, bottom-up processes work together to support comprehension of the message.

18. Bottom-up Processing Tasks
Bottom-up processing refers to knowledge of discrete elements, such as vocabulary, grammar, and sounds.
For example:
Choose the word that you hear
I hear they have developed a better vine/wine near here.

19. Bottom-up Processing Tasks
Below are tasks that illustrate bottom-up processing:
1. Recognize word divisions
2. Recognize key words
3. Recognize key transitions in a discourse
4. Use knowledge of word-order patterns to identify discrete parts
of spoken language
5. Recognize grammatical relations between elements in
sentences
6. Recognize the function of word stress in a sentence
7. Recognize the function of intonation in a sentence

20. Bottom-up Processing Tasks
Now, let’s go through each of these bottom-up processing tasks with examples.

21. Bottom-up Processing Tasks
1. Recognize word divisions
For example:
Listen to the word and decide how many syllables are in it.

22. Bottom-up Processing Tasks
2. Recognize key words
For example:
How much time did you spend in Boston?
Yes, I did.
Almost $250.
Yes, I had to.
About four days.

23. Bottom-up Processing Tasks
3. Recognize key transitions in a discourse
For example:
Students hear: Thank you for inviting me to the party, but I have too much homework to do.
Question: Will the speaker go to the party?
Answer: Yes/No

24. Bottom-up Processing Tasks
4. Use knowledge of word-order patterns to identify discrete parts of spoken language Discrete parts may include phonemes, stress, intonation, grammatical structure and vocabulary. For example: In a dictation, students listen to a passage and write down what they have heard

25. Bottom-up Processing Tasks
5. Recognize grammatical relations between key elements in sentences
For example:
Listen to a statement and then choose the option that is closest in meaning
Students hear: John ran into a classmate on his way to the library.
John exercised with his classmates.
John ran to the library.
John injured his classmate with his car.
John unexpectedly met a classmate.

26. Bottom-up Processing Tasks
6. Recognize the function of word stress in a sentence For example: Student hear: Is your downtown office open on Saturday? Students check if the person is asking about where or when something is happening: Answer: Where/When

27. Bottom-up Processing Tasks
7. Recognize the function of intonation in a sentence
For example:
Students hear: The coffee isn’t hot.
Students choose an appropriate response:
Yes, the coffee is hot. No, the coffee is not hot.

28. Reflection
Please think about the following question: Do you agree or disagree that bottom-up processing tasks should only be used for students at low levels? Write down your response in your notebook.

29. Reflection: Feedback
Should bottom-up processing tasks only be used for students at low levels? The answer to this question depends upon a few things: the listening construct, the test purpose, and the target language use. While bottom-up processing tasks may be easier for low-level students to complete, it is useful for students of all levels to practice and master bottom-up processing tasks.

30. Top-down Processing Tasks
Top-down processing refers to the use of background knowledge to understand the meaning of a message.
For example:
Where does the story take place?
Who are the characters?
What will the outcome be?

31. Top-down Processing Tasks
Below are tasks that illustrate top-down processing:
1. Ability to identify the gist or main idea of a discourse
2. Ability to identify the purpose of a discourse
3. Ability to deduce meaning of words from context
4. Ability to make textually-based inferences
5. Ability to distinguish between literal and figurative meanings
6. Ability to distinguish between facts and opinions

32. Top-down Processing Tasks
Now, let’s go through each of these top-down processing tasks with examples.

33. Top-down Processing Tasks
1. Ability to identify the gist or main idea of a discourse
For example:
What is the conversation mainly about?

34. Top-down Processing Tasks
2. Ability to identify the purpose of a discourse
For example:
Why did the student go to the library?

35. Top-down Processing Tasks
3. Ability to deduce meaning of words from context
For example :
According to the listening passage, the word “outstanding” is closest in meaning to ______
excellent
mediocre
poor
limited

36. Top-down Processing 4. Ability to make textually-based inferences:
Topic
Roles
Outcome
Cause
Details
Comparison
Sequence

37. Top-down Processing
4. Able to make textually-based inferences (Continued): For example: What does the speaker imply about the relationship between the politician and the government?

38. Top-down Processing Tasks
5. Ability to distinguish between literal and figurative meanings
For example:
Which sentence best expresses what the librarian means when she says: “Yup, that’s the idea!”
The idea is in front of you.
The student understands.

39. Top-down Processing Tasks
6. Ability to distinguish between facts and opinions
For example:
What is the student’s opinion towards the student government election?

40. Reflect
Please think about the following: What is a context for listening where top-down processing may be more important to assess than bottom-up processing? Write down your response.

41. Reflect: Feedback
What is a context for listening where top-down processing is more important to assess than bottom-up processing? If your students are planning to interact with English speakers, then the students need to be able to understand what the person is saying as well as what the person means. Top-down processing tasks provide an opportunity to see if a student can understand a person’s intent.

42. Reflect
Look back at the type of bottom-up and top-down tasks that you can assess. What types of top-down and bottom-up processing tasks are most suitable for your teaching context? Which are least suitable for your teaching context? Write down your response, and share your thoughts with your work colleagues.

43. Assessment Review
Let’s use what we have studied in other lessons and apply it to Listening Assessment.

44. Reflect
Think about the last listening test that you gave to your students.
Did your students do well on the test?
If you wrote the test, was it difficult to write?
If so, why was it difficult to write?

45. Listening assessment: Factors
When creating or evaluating a listening test, as with tests of other language skills, there are 3 factors to think about:
Listening construct
Test purpose
Target language use

46. Listening Assessment: Listening Construct
A listening construct refers to the listening abilities you want to measure in a listening assessment.
For example:
the ability to recognize word stress in sentences
the ability to recognize if a sentence is active or passive
the ability to infer the cause or effect of an event

47. Listening Assessment: Test purpose
Test purpose refers to the reason for administering a listening assessment.
For example:
Do you want to see if your students are mastering class material? (an achievement test)
Do you want to determine students’ overall listening ability, regardless of how they learned to listen? (a proficiency test)
Do you want to pinpoint the language features that students are having trouble with? (a diagnostic test)

48. Listening Assessment: Target Language Use
Remember, target language use (TLU) refers to how the students will use the language in their real life situation. For example: If the students are studying to work in tourism, then the listening passage on a test can be a hotel guest discussing their reservation.

49. Reflect
Once we know the construct, test purpose, and TLU domain, we can start thinking about what our test will look like.
Take a minute and think about a listening test you gave. Can you identify the following in your notebook: test construct, test purpose, TLU?
As language teachers, we want to make sure that all assessments we give are principled and appropriate for the setting.
Now, let’s return to how we assess listening.

50. Key Terms
New Term: Listening construct Review: Test construct Test purpose Target language use Top-down Processing Bottom-up Processing

51. Next Steps
Now, you should do read the PowerPoint presentation Features of listening passages. This is activity #3.

52. Sources
Buck, G. (2001). Assessing listening. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ockey, Gary J. (2013). Assessment of Listening. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Chichester, West Sussex, UK : Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Richards, J. (1990). The Language Teaching Matrix. New York: Cambridge University Press.