1.3.1　Listening Comprehension

1.3.1ListeningComprehension

Sincethe1980s,increasingattentionhasbeenplacedonlistening.Secondlanguage(L2)researchersviewitasacomplexcognitiveprocessandakeyaspectoforalproficiency.Peterson(2001)explainsthatlisteningcomprehensionisamultilevelandinteractiveprocesswherelistenersworkonvariouslevelsofcognitiveprocessingtounderstandtheincomingspeech.Listeningisgenerallyviewedasinvolvinganinteractionbetweentop-downandbottom-upprocessing.

Top-downprocessing,accordingtoRost(2011),standsfortheinformationprocessingguidedbyhigherlevelmentalprocessesasweconstructrepresentationsbydrawingonourexperiencesandexpectations.Listenerstapintobackgroundknowledgeofthetopic,thesituationorcontext,thetypeoftext,andthelanguage.Thisbackgroundknowledgeactivatesasetofexpectationsthathelpthelistenerstointerpretwhatisheardandanticipatewhatwillcomenext(p.346).Inotherwords,listenersusetop-downprocesseswhentheybuildaconceptualframeworkforcomprehensionbyusingtheirfamiliaritywiththelisteningcontextandtheirpriorknowledge(topic,genre,culture,andotherschemaknowledge).Listenersusecontentwordsandcontextualcluestoformhypothesesinanexploratorymanner.

Ontheotherhand,bottom-upprocessing,asdescribedbyRost(2011),referstotheinformationprocessingthatisguidedbyinputinrealtime,andproceedsinsequentialstages.Listenersusetext-basedstrategiesforcomprehension,focusingoncombinationsofsounds,words,andgrammar(p.314).Inotherwords,listenersusebottom-upprocesseswhentheyusetheirlinguisticknowledgeofsoundsandwordformstoprocessmorecomplexlexicalandgrammaticalitemsinordertointerprettheinput.Listenersusebottom-upprocesseswhentheyconstructmeaningbyaccretion,graduallycombiningincreasinglylargerunitsofmeaningfromthephoneme-leveluptodiscourse-levelfeatures.

Thisviewoflisteningasinvolvingbothtop-downprocessingandbottom-upprocessingisinaccordancewithsecondlanguagetheory,whichviewslisteningasaninteractiveandcomplexprocessinwhichlistenersfocusattentiononselectiveaspectsoforalinput,constructmeaning,andrelatewhattheyheartoexistingknowledge.Listeningcomprehension,then,isnotjusttop-downorbottom-upprocessing,butisaninteractiveandinterpretiveprocessinwhichlistenersusebothlinguisticknowledgeandcontextualknowledgetounderstandmessages.