e-Learning Webboard

The Resources for Module 9, Provided during the 1st Semester of 2011-2 Educational Year

English Listening Strategies

The Top Down Skills (ทักษะแบบบนลงล่าง/กว้างสู่แคบ)
Top down processing refers to the attribution of meaning, drawn from one's own world knowledge, to language input. It involves "the listener's ability to bring prior information to bear on the task of understanding the "heard" language". (Morley 2001)
การดำเนินการแบบ “บนลงล่าง” หมายถึงการทำให้ได้มาซึ่งความหมายจากความรู้ทางด้านภาษาที่ใส่เข้าไป เป็นการดึงเอาได้รับมาจากความรู้ทางโลกของคนๆนั้นเอง แนวทางนี้เกี่ยวข้องกับ “ความสามารถของผู้ฟังในอันที่จะนำเอามีอยู่ก่อนหน้านั้นแล้วมาใช้ในการทำความเข้าใจภาษาที่ได้ยินได้ฟัง”

A List of Top Down Skills (ทักษะแบบบนลงล่าง)
(This list has been compiled from a number of sources: Peterson (1991), and Brown (2001). They are listed in a rough order of conceptual difficulty):
รายการนี้ได้รับการรวบรวมมาจากแหล่งข้อมูลหลายๆแหล่ง ทักษะทั้งหลายได้รับการนำมาจัดเรียงไว้ตามลำดับความยากง่ายที่ควรจะเป็นอย่างง่ายๆ ดังนี้
• discriminating between emotions การแบ่งแยกระหว่างความรู้สึกด้านต่างๆ
• getting the gist การทำเพื่อให้ได้บทสรุปของการสนทนา
• recognizing the topic การจดจำหัวข้อได้
• using discourse structure to enhance listening strategies การใช้โครงสร้างของการสนทนาในการเสริมกลยุทธที่ใช้ในการฟัง
• identifying the speaker การระบุให้รู้ถึงตัวคนพูด
• evaluating themes การประเมินหัวข้อของการสนทนา
• finding the main idea การค้นหาใจความสำคัญ
• finding supporting details การค้นหารายละเอียดสนับสนุนใจความสำคัญ
• making inferences การทำข้อสรุปโดยอนุมาน
• understanding organizing principals of extended speech การทำความเข้าใจกับการจัดเรียงลำดับของใจความสำคัญๆของการพูดในลำดับถัดไป

SOURCE: http://www.abax.co.jp/listen/topdown.html (MAYBE A DEAD LINK NOW)

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The Bottom Up Skills
Bottom up skills are skills which help in decoding. "Bottom-up refers to that part of the aural comprehension process in which the understanding of the "heard" language is worked out proceeding from sounds to words to grammatical relationships in lexical meanings" (Morley 2001)
ทักษะแบบล่างขึ้นบนเป็นทักษะที่ช่วยในการถอดรหัส(แปลความหมาย) ล่างขึ้นบนหมายถึงกระบวนทำความเข้าใจของโสตประสาทส่วนที่เป็นการทำความเข้าใจในภาษาที่ได้ยินได้ฟังนับเป็นวิธีการที่กระทำจากเสียงไปเป็นคำและจากคำไปเป็นความสัมพันธ์ทางไวยากรณ์ในความหมายของศัพท์

A List of Bottom Up Skills
(This list has been compiled from a number of sources: Peterson (1991), and Brown (2001). They are listed in a rough order of conceptual difficulty):
รายการนี้ได้รับการรวบรวมมาจากแหล่งข้อมูลหลายๆแหล่ง ทักษะทั้งหลายได้รับการนำมาจัดเรียงไว้ตามลำดับความยากง่ายที่ควรจะเป็นอย่างง่ายๆ ดังนี้
• discriminating between intonation contours in sentences การแบ่งแยกระหว่างลักษณะของการออกเสียงสูงต่ำ
• discriminating between phonemes การแบ่งแยกระหว่างหน่วยพื้นฐานของเสียง(ซึ่งแตกต่างกันไปในแต่ละภาษา)
• listening for word endings การฟังการลงท้ายของคำ
• recognizing syllable patterns การจดจำได้ถึงรูปแบบของพยางค์
• being aware of sentence fillers in informal speech การตระหนักถึงคำที่นำมาเสริมประโยคในการพูดอย่างไม่เป็นทางการนัก
• recognizing words, discriminate between word boundaries การจดจำได้ถึงคำศัพท์ แบ่งแยกระหว่างขอบเขตของคำ
• picking out details การดึงเอารายละเอียดออกมาได้
• differentiating between content and function words by stress pattern การจำแนกระหว่างคำที่ทำหน้าที่เป็นเนื้อหาสาระและคำที่หน้าที่เฉพาะอย่างเพื่อเสริมเนื้อหาสาระโดยสังเกตจากรูปแบบการเน้นเสียง


***Parts of speech can be divided into two major groups (2 classes):
1) content words (open class)
2) function words (closed class)
“Content words” are words that have meaning. They are words we would look up in a dictionary, such as "lamp," "computer," "drove." New content words are constantly added to the English language; old content words constantly leave the language as they become obsolete. Therefore, we refer to content words as an "open" class.
-- Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are content parts of speech.
“Function words” are words that exist to explain or create grammatical or structural relationships into which the content words may fit. Words like "of," "the," "to," they have little meaning on their own. They are much fewer in number and generally do not change as English adds and omits content words. Therefore, we refer to function words as a "closed" class.
-- Pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, determiners, and interrogatives are some function parts of speech.
Note the differences between content and function parts of speech:

Generally, we can use one or more of five signals to help us determine a word’s part of speech designation:
1. function words (the, what, and)
2. inflectional morphemes (-s, -ed)
3. derivational morphemes
4. word order in sentence patterns
5. stress patterns (subJECT/SUBject, INsert/inSERT, IMprint/imPRINT)

SOURCE: http://www.towson.edu/ows/ptsspch.htm (STILL ACCESSIBLE)

• finding the stressed syllable การค้นหาพยางค์ที่มีการเน้นเสียง
• recognizing words with weak or central vowels การจำได้ซึ่งคำที่มี “เสียงสระอ่อนๆหรือกลางๆ”

The vowels in the "grammar words" or "function words" of sentences, the prepositions, conjunctions, the articles and so on, become weak; that is, the vowels change to "central vowels", the unstressed vowel. As a result it is often difficult to hear these words. The vowel sounds are NOT prominent and are difficult to catch. They are weak and pronounced only very lightly. Basically, words that are stressed are pronounced normally and words that are unstressed are weak and difficult to hear. The "to" in the sentence below sounds like "tu" because the vowels are weak.

Second language learners often have difficulty with English weak vowels. Although some languages do have a system of weakening vowels, many languages do not. Students need to be taught about weak vowels.
Many listening classes don't teach students about the central vowel. And students need to understand this to understand English!!

Top-Up Listening teaches students about weak vowels. And so should you.

SOURCE: http://www.abax.co.jp/listen/weak.html (MAYBE A DEAD LINK NOW)


• recognizing when syllables or words are dropped การจดจำได้ถึงพยางค์หรือคำที่หายไป
• recognizing words when they are linked together in streams of speech การจดจำได้ถึงคำต่างๆเมื่อมีการเชื่อมโยงเข้าด้วยกันในการพูดที่ต่อเนื่องกันไป
• using features of stress, intonation and prominence to help identify important information การใช้คุณลักษณะของการเน้นเสียง เสียงสูงเสียงต่ำ และการออกเสียงที่เด่นชัดเพื่อช่วยให้รู้ถึงข้อมูลที่มีความสำคัญ

SOURCE:http://www.abax.co.jp/listen/topdown.html (MAYBE A DEAD LINK NOW)
http://www.abax.co.jp/listen/ (MAYBE A DEAD LINK NOW)

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Listening: Top down and bottom up
Submitted by TE Editor on 5 September, 2007 - 13:00

In 'real-life' listening, our students will have to use a combination of the two processes, with more emphasis on 'top-down' or 'bottom-up' listening depending on their reasons for listening.
ในระหว่างการฟังในชีวิตจริง นักศึกษาจะต้องใช้ทั้งสองกระบวนการ(บนลงล่างและล่างสู่บน)ผสมผสานกัน ด้วยการเน้นไปที่บนลงล่างหรือล่างสู่บนอย่างใดอย่างหนึ่งมากกว่ากัน แล้วแต่เหตุผลของการฟังแต่ละครั้ง
• Top-down vs. bottom-up listening
• In the classroom
• Top-down listening activities
• Bottom-up listening activities
• Conclusion

Top-down vs. bottom-up listening (การเปรียบเทียบระหว่าง บนลงล่างและล่างสู่บน)

Imagine the following situations: (ลองนึกถึงสถานการณ์ดังต่อไปนี้)

Over lunch, your friend tells you a story about a recent holiday, which was a disaster. You listen with interest and interject at appropriate moments, maybe to express surprise or sympathy.
ในช่วงเวลาของการรับประทานอาหารกลางวัน เพื่อนคนหนึ่งของคุณเล่าเรื่องการไปเที่ยวในระหว่างวันหยุดซึ่งเป็นเรื่องราวที่ย่ำแย่ของมันให้คุณฟัง คุณก็รับฟังด้วยความสนใจและพูดสอดแทรกบ้างเป็นบางครั้ง อาจเป็นในลักษณะของการแสดงความประหลาดใจหรือเห็นอกเห็นใจ

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.
ตอนเย็นของวันนั้น เพื่อนอีกคนหนึ่งก็โทรศัพท์มาชวนให้ไปงานปาร์ตี้ที่บ้านของเธอในวันเสาร์ที่กำลังจะมาถึง ด้วยเหตุที่คุณไม่เคยไปที่บ้านของเธอมาก่อนเลย เธอจึงบอกทางให้แก่คุณ คุณฟังอย่างตั้งใจและจดโน้ตเอาไว้ด้วย

How do you listen in each case? Are there any differences?
ในแต่ละกรณีคุณฟังอย่างไร? มันแตกต่างกันหรือไม่?

With the holiday anecdote, your main concern was probably understanding the general idea and knowing when some response was expected. In contrast, when listening to the directions to a party, understanding the exact words is likely to be more important – if you want to get there without incident, that is!

The way you listened to the holiday anecdote could be characterised as top-down listening. This refers to the use of background knowledge in understanding the meaning of the message. Background knowledge consists of context, that is, the situation and topic, and co-text, in other words, what came before and after. The context of chatting to a friend in a casual environment itself narrows down the range of possible topics. Once the topic of a holiday has been established, our knowledge of the kind of things that can happen on holiday comes into play and helps us to ‘match’ the incoming sound signal against our expectations of what we might hear and to fill out specific details.

In contrast, when listening to directions to a friend’s house, comprehension is achieved by dividing and decoding the sound signal bit by bit. The ability to separate the stream of speech into individual words becomes more important here, if we are to recognise, for example, the name of a street or an instruction to take a particular bus.

In reality, fluent listening normally depends on the use of both processes operating simultaneously. Think about talking to your friends (in your first language) in a noisy bar. It is likely that you ‘guess’ the content of large sections of the conversation, based on your knowledge of the topic and what has already been said. In this way, you rely more on top-down processing to make up for unreliability in the sound signal, which forms an obstacle to bottom-up processing.

Similarly, second-language listeners often revert to their knowledge of the topic and situation when faced with unfamiliar vocabulary or structures, so using top-down processing to compensate for difficulties in bottom-up processing. On the other hand, if a listener is unable to understand anything of what she hears, she will not even be able to establish the topic of conversation, so top-down processing will also be very limited.

In the classroom
In real-life listening, our students will have to use a combination of the two processes, with more emphasis on top-down or bottom-up listening depending on their reasons for listening. However, the two types of listening can also be practised separately, as the skills involved are quite different.

Top-down listening activities
Do you ever get your students to predict the content of a listening activity beforehand, maybe using information about the topic or situation, pictures, or key words? If so, you are already helping them to develop their top-down processing skills, by encouraging them to use their knowledge of the topic to help them understand the content. This is an essential skill given that, in a real-life listening situation, even advanced learners are likely to come across some unknown vocabulary. By using their knowledge of context and co-text, they should either be able to guess the meaning of the unknown word, or understand the general idea without getting distracted by it.

Other examples of common top-down listening activities include putting a series of pictures or sequence of events in order, listening to conversations and identifying where they take place, reading information about a topic then listening to find whether or not the same points are mentioned, or inferring the relationships between the people involved.

Bottom-up listening activities

The emphasis in EFL listening materials in recent years has been on developing top-down listening processes. There are good reasons for this given that learners need to be able to listen effectively even when faced with unfamiliar vocabulary or structures. However, if the learner understands very few words from the incoming signal, even knowledge about the context may not be sufficient for her to understand what is happening, and she can easily get lost. Of course, low-level learners may simply not have enough vocabulary or knowledge of the language yet, but most teachers will be familiar with the situation in which higher-level students fail to recognise known words in the stream of fast connected speech. Bottom-up listening activities can help learners to understand enough linguistic elements of what they hear to then be able to use their top-down skills to fill in the gaps.

The following procedure for developing bottom-up listening skills draws on dictogloss, and is designed to help learners recognise the divisions between words, an important bottom-up listening skill. The teacher reads out a number of sentences, and asks learners to write down how many words there would be in the written form. While the task might sound easy, for learners the weak forms in normal connected speech can make it problematic, so it is very important for the teacher to say the sentences in a very natural way, rather than dictating them word-by-word.

Some suitable sentences are:
• I’m going to the shop.
• Do you want some chocolate?
• Let’s have a party!
• I’d better go soon.
• You shouldn’t have told him.
• What are you doing?
• There isn’t any coffee.
• What have you got?
• He doesn’t like it.
• It’s quite a long way.
• Why did you think you’d be able to?
• Can you tell him I called?

Learners can be asked to compare their answers in pairs, before listening again to check. While listening a third time, they could write what they hear, before reconstructing the complete sentences in pairs or groups. By comparing their version with the correct sentences, learners will become more aware of the sounds of normal spoken English, and how this is different from the written or carefully spoken form. This will help them to develop the skill of recognising known words and identifying word divisions in fast connected speech.

Conclusion
Successful listening depends on the ability to combine these two types of processing. Activities which work on each strategy separately should help students to combine top-down and bottom-up processes to become more effective listeners in real-life situations or longer classroom listenings.

Further reading
Anne Anderson and Tony Lynch (1988). Listening. Oxford University Press
Jack Richards, Designing instructional materials for teaching listening comprehension, in ‘The Language Teaching Matrix’, Cambridge, 1990
Mary Underwood (1989). Teaching Listening. Longman
Penny Ur (1984), Teaching Listening Comprehension, Cambridge.
Magnus Wilson. Discovery Listening – improving perceptual processing. ELT Journal Volume 57/4 (October 2003).
Catherine Morley, Teacher, Teacher trainer, Mexico

SOURCE: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/artic ... own-bottom (STILL ACCESSIBLE)
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Hello kha,

The following is what I responded last semester regarding Task 4 of M9 na kha:

1. The top down approach focuses more on gaining a broad understanding of what we are listening to (e.g. listening to a holiday anecdote) whereas the bottom up approach pays more attention to specific information or details (e.g. listening to a direction to your friend's house).

2. The difference between 1 & 2
1. Your listening strategies (factual inf.)-you should be specific in reporting the strategies you've used (top down or bottom up) when listening to both "the announcement on the scholarship..." and "an interview with two students."
2. Your experience (factual inf+opinions)- this is more general on how you've experienced the use of these listening strategies (e.g. good/terrible).

Please also be reminded that prior to completing this task, you will have to follow the 3 listening stages and study the information under the Resources na kha.

Hopefully, these will not confuse you more na kha:)

Thank you very much, Khun Ekkawit P and Ajarn lugsamee.