PROPOSAL of The effects of repeated listening on junior English majors’ listening comprehension

DH14TA-Lê Huỳnh Diễm Xương-Trần Thị Diệu Minh

PROPOSAL
Background of the study
Although listening is now well recognized as a critical dimension in language
1.1.

learning, it still remains one of the least understood processes. According to Morley
(2001), during the 1980s special attention to listening was incorporated into new
instructional frameworks, that is, functional language and communicative
approaches. Throughout the 1990s, attention to listening in language instruction
increased dramatically. Until recently, there have been several studies of developing
listening comprehension, one of which is repeated listening approach. According to
Krashen and Dupuy’s findings, repeated listening could increase second language
learners’ listening comprehension. It was discovered that repeated listening could
help language learners achieve listening comprehension effectively. It is known as a
very cheap, useful one to self-enhance listening comprehension. Language learners
these days including AGU students, however, still struggle with finding a right
method to practice listening and to improve listening comprehension. As a result,
there have been AGU students galore, even graduated ones, considering listening
skill as the greatest fear in their English learning, which leads them to fall in
communication with the others. Knowing the seriousness of this problem, a survey
on the effects of repeated listening on junior English majors’ listening
comprehension at AGU is conducted to give a helpful approach of developing
listening comprehension to AGU students, especially to English majors. According to
the personal experience of Krashen in 1996 and the large-scale study of Dupuy in
1999, repeated listening brings positive results to language learners which help
them enhance not only listening comprehension, fluency but also vocabulary. Hence,
this dissertation will re-verify that to see whether repeated listening approaches
help enhance AGU students’ listening comprehension. This study is divided into five
chapters: introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, and results and

discussion. In the last section, in particular, we points out the study’s strengths and
limitations, and makes several suggestions.
1.2.
Research title


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Therefore, in this thesis, I would like to focus my research on the topic:
“The effects of repeated listening on junior English majors’ listening
comprehension at AGU”
With this title, some main reasons and purposes for our research would be listed
out as in the next section “Rational”.
1.3.

Rationale

Although English is more and more concentrated in Vietnamese educational
system, just few Vietnamese students can be successful in learning English, even
English majored ones. Like at many other schools and universities in Vietnam, the
majority of An Giang University English majors are not really good at English,
specially listening skill, even after graduation. Those students cannot communicate
in English effectively and confidently inasmuch as their listening skill is not good
enough to be able to understand what the others mean. Realizing the seriousness
of this problem, there have been researches galore into listening skill development
carried out by AGU teachers and students. Of these studies, however, there have
been just few researchers noticing to the roles of repeated listening on improving
listening comprehension. As a result, a survey on “The effects of repeated listening
on junior English majors’ listening comprehension at AGU” is conducted to give
practical contribution to the teaching and learning of English, particularly at AGU.

To be more detailed, this study is expected to improve English listening ability for
AGU students which results them in communicating in English effectively by
repeated listening method. For other researchers who conduct the same study, the
result of this study is expected to be a reference and contribute more information
to solve the same problems.
1.4.

Research questions:

This study is conducted based on the following research questions:


DH14TA-Lê Huỳnh Diễm Xương-Trần Thị Diệu Minh
(1) What is the reality of applying repeated listening approach of junior English

majors at AGU?
(2) What are the effects of repeated listening on junior English majors’ listening
comprehension at AGU?
1.5.
The aims of the study
The purpose of this study is to find out the effects of repeated listening on junior
English majors’ listening comprehension at AGU and enhance English majors’
listening ability. As a result, the aims of this study are:
(1) To investigate the reality of applying repeated listening approach of junior
English majored students at AGU.
(2) To examine the effects of repeated listening on English listening
comprehension.
1.6.
Research methodology
1.6.1. Research design

There are several kinds of research designs such as descriptive design, experimental
design, evaluation design, etc. Each will have different strengths and weaknesses.
Therefore, we will depend on the features and contents of questions, study
conditions such as time and financial ability to apply an appropriate research
design. In this study, “the descriptive design” is applied to draw a general picture
about the reality of applying repeated listening approach of junior English majors
at AGU. It is also used to re-describe the effects of listening repetition on those
English majors’ listening comprehension at AGU, which is to improve listening
ability of AGU students. Firstly, a survey questionnaire will be delivered to 50
DH14TA students to investigate the reality of applying repeated listening on junior
English majors’ listening comprehension and its effects on junior English majors’
listening comprehension at AGU. The information from questionnaire will be
analyzed to embrace the reality of learning listening skills at AGU and find out an
effective solution which can be “repeated listening” to enhance the students’
listening comprehension. Then, an interview is also conducted to a group of
students with similar contents above in order to raise the reliability.
1.6.2. Population


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In this research, the English majored students are the objects of the study. At
present, faculty of foreign languages has over 800 students in total including
pedagogy and bachelor. There are approximately 800 English students at AGU
divided into 3 different majors: AV, TA and CD. AV, TA and CD majors, in detailed,
usually take about 200, 200 and 400 students respectively. Interaction books (to
freshmen) and English language skills for IELTS books (to second, third and fourth
year students) are applied to primarily develop four main skills - listening,
speaking, writing and reading- in their curriculum. Like the three left, the total
units of listening subjects which must be completed are 12 to university students,

and 9 to college ones before their graduation.
1.6.3. Sample

Due to the limitation of time, research competence and finance, in this study, we
only pick up 50 students from DH14TA and DH14AV for surveying the effects of
repeated listening on junior English majors’ listening comprehension at AGU. These
participants are chosen to be our sample because they have just been taught
enough the number of units of listening skills and observed teachers’ listening
teaching methods during 5 terms of studying listening subjects. Hence, they are
selected to be participants in this survey.
1.6.4 Data collection instruments
 Questionnaires

A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and
other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents.
Although it is often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not
always the case. The questionnaire was invented by the Statistical Society of London
in 1838.
To collect the sufficient data needed for this study, a questionnaire consisting of 18
questions is designed for 50 students ( 25 from DH14TA and 25 from DH14AV) to
get information about the reality of applying repeated listening approach of those
students and find out its effects on the students’ listening comprehension at AG.


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During the time questionnaire was set up, it underwent a lot of changes. Right after
the first drafts had been finished, it was delivered to these 50 students as the pilot
stage. The pilot data was used to check for the reliability first. Then the carefully
edited questionnaire would be delivered to these ones to exploit their levels of

agreement to each statement relating to the reality of applying repeated listening
of junior English majors and the effects of listening repetition on junior English
majors’ listening comprehension at AGU. Before using the questionnaire for the
main scheme it was read and evaluated by teacher. To ensure the reliability of
students’ responses, the research gave clear instructions to do the job.
The questionnaire consists of three parts with 18 questions:
(1) 3 questions for participant’s background.
(2) 9 questions for the reality of applying repeated listening of junior English

majors.
(3) 6 questions for the effects of listening repetition on junior English majors’
listening comprehension at AGU.
 Interview
Beside the questionnaire, to make sure the reliability of data collected in this
research, an interview checklist consisting of 14 questions was designed to exploit
students’ feedbacks from the reality and effects of repeated listening approach on
junior English majored students’ listening comprehension at AGU. The subjects of
the interview were 5 students selected among 50 students in the sample. They are
students who apply and follow repeated listening approach to improve their
listening comprehension. When being interviewed, five students would answer 14
questions in the interview checklist about background information, the reality and
the effects of applying repeated listening on junior English majors’ listening
comprehension at AGU and their answers would be carefully written.
1.7.

Structure of the thesis

This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one introduces general information of
the research. Chapter two reviews the literature and chapter three discusses

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research methodology. Findings are presented in chapter four. Chapter five gives the
summary of the study, conclusion, implications and suggestions for further study.
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1.

Introduction

Literature review is a base of the research. In this study, literature is built with two
parts. The first part is definition and clarifying of key terms including repeated
listening, listening comprehension. In the second part, it is background of the study.
It concludes related studies of repeated listening and listening comprehension.
2.2.
Definition of key terms
2.2.1. What is repeated listening?

Repeated listening is when a learner listens to the same recording repeatedly. In
repeated listening, learners collect several brief tape-recordings of proficient
speakers discussing a topic selected by the acquirer. They then listen to the tape as
many times as they like, at their leisure. Repeated listening, interests in the topic,
and familiar context help make the input comprehensible. Topics are gradually
changed, which allows the learners to expand their competence comfortably.
Repeated listening is a low-tech, inexpensive, and pleasant way to obtain
comprehensible input.
 Necessary tools for applying repeated listening

In order to best utilize repeated listening, a few tools of the trade are needed:
+ “Ipod or MP3 player” for storing audio files.

+ “Google Translate” for finding listening materials.
+ “Audio Hijack” for recording any audio from the Internet that isn’t downloadable.
+ Time to search, collect, and listen.
 Tips for repeated listening


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+ First of all, let’s choose short English audios – from 2 to 5 minutes – which you are
interested in the topics. Repeated listening should only be on topics that are of real
interest, to ensure that the focus is on the message. Boredom sets in rapidly when
listening is undertaken only because it is in another language.
+ After listening to the recording for several times, if you still do not really
understand some passage of it, you should read the transcripts to make it clearer
and more familiar. This will make the foreign language input more comprehensible.
+ Listen repeatedly until you understand all about the audio/ tape or interest starts
to wane.
+ Topics then are changed gradually and you move to related topics. This will help
ensure greater comprehensibility of input. One might move, for example, from
current events to history.
 Repeated listening ’s theoretical foundations

Repeated listening is based on research findings on the receptive skills: listening
and reading. It is based on the concept of extensive listening (listening in great
amounts and for content) and the principles of repetition, authenticity, listening for
information, and topic familiarity. In the repeated listening approach presented
here, comprehension is enhanced because subjects can listen to the same input
several times. Repetitive exposure to a listening passage has been found to be a very
effective means for improving listening comprehension. Studies that have pointed
out the value of repetitive exposure to language input are Blankenship, 1982; Pica,

1987; Lund, 1991; Cervantes and Gainer, 1992; Chiang and Dunkel, 1992; Terrell,
1993; Berne, 1995; Bygate, 1999; Krashen, 1996; and Gass, Mackey, AlvarezTorres,
and Fernández, 1999. From a pedagogical point of view, Chambers (1996) points
out that the repetition technique reduces the students’ level of anxiety because the
listener knows that he/she can listen to the segment as many times as desired.
Moreover, subjects studied by Rodrigo and Krashen (1996) reported that, when
rehearing a single listening passage several times, the speakers on the tape seemed


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to the listeners to be speaking more slowly, when in fact they, the students, were
listening to the same, unaltered passage. They also appeared to distinguish sound
sequences more efficiently into more and more meaningful words and
chunks/phrases, thereby improving their level of comprehension with each
rehearing.
Repeated listening also requires authentic listening material, which, as with all
authentic texts, focuses on culture as a natural informational context facilitating
the language acquisition process. The benefits are numerous. Authentic material
provides adult learners with an opportunity to work at a higher cognitive level
(Byrnes, 1984 and Swaffar, Arens, and Byrnes, 1991) and, consequently, to develop
target language skills in a more meaningful context. Authentic material, thus, leads
to more effective listening skills and to cultural awareness. The use of authentic
listening material, and hence of spontaneous speech by native speakers, has been
recommended by several researchers (Meyer, 1984; Liskin-Gasparro and Veguez,
1990; Lund, 1991; Herron and Seay, 1991; Bacon, 1992; Harlow and Muyskens,
1994; and Schmidt-Rinehart, 1994; Omaggio, 2000).
Similarly, topic familiarity has been shown to aid listening comprehension by
allowing language learners to more accurately predict the unknown content of a
passage as they establish links between what is familiar, i.e. background knowledge,

and what is new. Several researchers report that topic familiarity has a positive
effect on listening skills (Gass and Varonis, 1984; Glisan, 1988; Altman, 1990; Lund,
1991; Chiang and Dunkel, 1992; Dunkel, 1986; Schmidt-Rinehart, 1994; Bygate,
1999; and Gass, Mackey, Alvarez-Torres, and Fernandez, 1999). Finally, if a
language teacher has succeeded in helping his or her students to focus on meaning
and information, (i.e. listening for content, extensively and allowing for the
possibility of not completely understanding every single word in the recorded
passage), they will not be concerned about form, and consequently, they will be
more likely to apply top-down strategies, as used by effective listeners. For a more
detailed account of the benefits of a focus on information and general meaning in


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language acquisition see Cook, Dupuy and Tse (1994), Day and Bamford (2000),
and Krashen (2003, 1993).
2.2.2. What is listening comprehension?
 Definition of listening

Listening can be defined as, “Listening is the act of hearing attentively”. It is also a
process similar to reading which should possess knowledge of phonology, syntax,
semantics and text understanding. Thomlison (1984) defines listening as, “Active
listening, which is very important for effective communication” or “More than just
hearing and to understand and interpret the meaning of a conversation”. Listening
is receiving language through the ears. It involves identifying the sounds of speech
and processing them into words and sentences. When we listen, we use our ears to
receive individual sounds (letters, stress, rhythm and pauses) and we use our brain
to convert these into messages that mean something to us. Listening in any
language requires focus and attention. It is a skill that some people need to work at
harder than others. People who have difficulty concentrating are typically poor

listeners. Listening in a second language requires even greater focus. Like babies,
we learn this skill by listening to people who already know how to speak the
language
 Types of listening
† Discriminative listening

Discriminative listening is the most basic type of listening, whereby the difference
between difference sounds is identified. If you cannot hear differences, then you
cannot make sense of the meaning that is expressed by such differences. We learn to
discriminate between sounds within our own language early, and later are unable
to discriminate between the phonemes of other languages. This is one reason why a
person from one country finds it difficult to speak another language perfectly, as
they are unable distinguish the subtle sounds that are required in that language.
Likewise, a person who cannot hear the subtleties of emotional variation in another
person's voice will be less likely to be able to discern the emotions the other person


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is experiencing. Listening is a visual as well as auditory act, as we communicate
much through body language. We thus also need to be able to discriminate between
muscle and skeletal movements that signify different meanings.
†

Comprehension listening

The next step beyond discriminating between different sound and sights is to make
sense of them. To comprehend the meaning requires first having a lexicon of words
at our fingertips and also all rules of grammar and syntax by which we can
understand what others are saying the same is true, of course, for the visual

components of communication, and an understanding of body language helps us
understand what the other person is really meaning. In communication, some
words are more important and some less so, and comprehension often benefits from
extraction of key facts and items from a long spiel. Comprehension listening is also
known as content listening, informative listening and full listening.
†

Critical listening

Critical listening is listening in order to evaluate and judge, forming opinion about
what is being said. Judgment includes assessing strengths and weaknesses,
agreement and approval. This form of listening requires significant real-time
cognitive effort as the listener analyzes what is being said, relating it to existing
knowledge and rules, whilst simultaneously listening to the ongoing words from the
speaker.
†

Biased listening

Biased listening happens when the person hears only what they want to hear,
typically misinterpreting what the other person says based on the stereotypes and
other biases that they have. Such biased listening is often very evaluative in nature.
†

Evaluative listening

In evaluative listening, or critical listening, we make judgments about what the
other person is saying. We seek to assess the truth of what is being said. We also

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judge what they say against our values, assessing them as good or bad, worthy or
unworthy. Evaluative listening is particularly pertinent when the other person is
trying to persuade us, perhaps to change our behavior and maybe even to change
our beliefs. Within this, we also discriminate between subtleties of language and
comprehend the inner meaning of what is said. Typically also we weigh up the pros
and cons of an argument, determining whether it makes sense logically as well as
whether it is helpful to us. Evaluative listening is also called critical, judgmental or
interpretive listening.
†

Appreciative listening

In appreciative listening, we seek certain information which will appreciate, for
example that which helps meet our needs and goals. We use appreciative listening
when we are listening to good music, poetry or maybe even the stirring words of a
great leader.
†

Sympathetic listening

In sympathetic listening we care about the other person and show this concern in
the way we pay close attention and express our sorrow for their ills and happiness
at their joys.
†

Empathetic listening

When we listen empathetically, we go beyond sympathy to seek a truer understand

how others are feeling. This requires excellent discrimination and close attention to
the nuances of emotional signals. When we are being truly empathetic, we actually
feel what they are feeling. In order to get others to expose these deep parts of them
to us, we also need to demonstrate our empathy in our demeanor towards them,
asking sensitively and in a way that encourages self-disclosure.
†

Therapeutic listening

In therapeutic listening, the listener has a purpose of not only empathizing with the
speaker but also to use this deep connection in order to help the speaker


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understand, change or develop in some way. This not only happens when you go to
see a therapist but also in many social situations, where friends and family seek to
both diagnose problems from listening and also to help the speaker cure themselves,
perhaps by some cathartic process. This also happens in work situations, where
managers, HR people, trainers and coaches seek to help employees learn and
develop.
†

Dialogic listening

The word “dialogue” stems from the Greek words “dial”, meaning “through” and
“logos” meaning “words”. Thus, dialogic listening mean learning through
conversation and an engaged interchange of ideas and information in which we
actively seek to learn more about the person and how they think. Dialogic listening
is sometimes known as “relational listening”.

†

Relationship listening

Sometimes the most important factor in listening is in order to develop or sustain a
relationship. This is why lovers talk for hours and attend closely to what each other
has to say when the same words from someone else would seem to be rather boring.
Relationship listening is also important in areas such as negotiation and sales,
where it is helpful if the other person likes you and trusts you.
 Types of listening skills
† Intensive listening

Intensive listening is when teachers use taped materials or materials on disk to
make students practice their listening skill (Harmer, 129). In intensive listening,
teachers have to concentrate on making students achieve and recognize the
phonological and morphological elements of the language (Brown, 122). For
example, the case of hearing two words nearly pronounced similarly but in fact
these two words include two different vowels as what Douglas Brown showed here;
phonemic pair, vowels, (123).
Test-takers hear: is he living?


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Test-takers read:
a. Is he living?
b. Is he leaving?
This type of intensive listening helps teachers to assess phonological and
morphological aspects of students' language.
†

Extensive listening

Extensive listening will usually take place outside the classroom, in the students
home, car, or on personal stereos as they travel from place to another. The
motivational power of such an activity increase dramatically when students make
their own choices about what they are going to listen to (Harmer, 228). In that case,
students are free in their selection of what they are listening to. This type of
listening gives teachers to play their role even if they are so far from the students by
advising students to listen, for example, to especial English accent more than other
one. Douglas Brown considered dictation as one of extensive listening tasks (132).
For EFL teachers, dictation considers as a means for assessing listening
comprehension because dictation' nature shows that students need a verity of
lexical grammatical competences.
 Definition of listening comprehension

With the regard to the term “listening comprehension” in language learning,
scholars have proposed a number of different definitions.
Chastain (1971), for example, defined listening comprehension as the ability to
understand the speech of native speakers at normal speed in listening situations.
Similarly, Saricoban (1999) noted that listening comprehension is the ability to
identify and understand what others are saying. This involves understanding a
speaker’s accent or pronunciation, his or her grammar and vocabulary, and
grasping the meaning conveyed.


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Listening comprehension can also be defined broadly as human processing which
mediates between sound and the construction of meaning (Morley, 1991). That is,

after people receive sounds from the environment, they try to get the meaning out
of the sounds they hear. In a similar token, listening comprehension is described as a
complex process of what people use to understand speech. Dirven and OakeshottTaylor (1984) suggested that those complex activities cannot be understood by
simply looking at the linguistic cues or knowledge of the language, but nonlinguistic cues or knowledge of the world also have to be considered in the
comprehension process.
Byrnes (1984), who defined listening as a complex skill in which people have to
employ all types of knowledge to interpret the meaning, proposed another similar
view of listening comprehension definition. She explained that listening is more
than the perception of sounds. Rather, it includes comprehension of words, phrases,
clauses, sentences and connected discourse.
By Wallace, Stariha and Walberg, 13, listening skills are essential for learning since
they enable students to acquire insights and information and to achieve success in
communicating with others. This means that students receive information from
school settings to transfer it to their daily life to benefit from it for the purpose of
communicating in a real social interaction. Moreover, Gary Buck argues the same
point of view "listening is a complex process in which the listener takes the incoming
data, an acoustic signal, and interprets it based on a wide variety of linguistic and
non-linguistic knowledge (247).
Spratt, Alla, Pulverness, and Williams (The TKT Teaching Knowledge Test Course)
added that listening is sense of language sounds that have meaningful indication
(30). The authors meant that when the person feels that there is audio sound which
has a meaning, he/ she is listening by this way.
Jack C. Richards viewed in his introduction that considering listening as"…the
mastery of discrete skills or micro skills, such as recognizing reduced forms of
words, recognizing cohesive devices in texts, and identifying key words in a text, and


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that these skills should form the focus of teaching" is not enough and adds that

listening examination is not exclusively for comprehension but also for language
learning itself (1). Jack C. Richards' view shows the importance of what really
should be taught and the aims of teaching should not be exclusive only on making
students understand for a moment. Students' understanding should cover the
possible learning progression.
Although these definitions vary to some extent, basically listening is considered as
an activity in which listeners employ a variety of processes in trying to comprehend
information from oral texts. In this way, listeners construct meaning from the
passage and relate what they hear to their existing knowledge. Additionally, it is
meaningful to consider listening comprehension as a three stage process.
 The process of listening comprehension

The process of listening comprehension once thought to be a passive activity is now
generally described as a dynamic interpretive process consisting of a series of
complex interactive processing stages that a listener goes through (Call, 1985;
Murphy, 1991; O’Malley, Chamot & Kupper, 1989; Richards, 1983; Rost, 1990). As
mentioned there are many interpretations of these processes and different authors
make their own distinctions in gradation and the rank order in which some
processes occur. It is not possible to explore all the arguments since the concern
here is with how a teacher might approach the teaching of listening to assist
learners with problems. In order to find where these problem areas have been
placed in the processing chain, it is useful to examine a few examples taken from the
literature. Richards defines three related levels of processing which he terms
‘propositional identification’, ‘interpretation of illocutionary force’ and ‘activation
of real world knowledge’ (1983:220). Lund lists six ‘listener functions’ of which
‘identification’ is the first and is defined as ‘focus on the code rather than the
message’ (1990:107). Dunkel et. al. divide the listening comprehension construct
into three areas. The first area consists of processes which precede comprehension
such as orientation, attention, perception and recognition. These they term as being

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‘lower order, ‘bottom up’, ‘trivial pre cursor’ elements (1993:180). Comprehension
occupies the middle ground and the ‘higher order’, ‘top down’ elements including,
for example, analysis, synthesis or evaluation corresponding to Richards‘ activation
of world knowledge’. The problems of perception, recognition, and identification are
described as being ‘lower order’ processes. Upon such examination it becomes
obvious that the problems mentioned fall mainly into the ‘bottom up’ category of
processing.
 Learners’ problems in listening comprehension

EFL Learners regularly report persistent problems in coping with spoken English
which include problems with recognition of sounds (Carrier, 1999; Rost, 1990) and
their functions (Brazil, 1994a) in fast speech, problems of anxiety from a lack of
understanding of the systematics of the acoustic signal (Brazil, 1994a; Norris,
1993) and problems concerning how to approach the task of decoding spoken
English (Brown, G., 1990; Carrier, 1999; Chien & Wei, 1998). There are complaints
about ‘speed’ which are related to difficulties in understanding reduced forms,
distinguishing word boundaries and recognition of non-prominent words
(Cauldwell, 1996). Temporal concerns are also related to processing and short term
memory capacity as well (Call, 1985; Ellis, 1996; Rost, 1990). There is a need for
teachers to provide a focus on listening to promote acquisition in general and to
relieve the frustrations and anxiety learners may feel in coping with the stream of
speech. In order to do this in a principled way, it is incumbent on teachers to be
aware of what current theory has to offer in this area. Unfortunately this may not
always be something teachers do. Two thirds of the teachers in Berne’s study (1998)
reported ‘never’ or ‘rarely’ when asked how often they sought out current listening
comprehension research. Valuable insights from research may be ignored or
dismissed if teachers feel threatened by such materials (Carter, 1998). Literature on

listening comprehension may appear to be extremely complex and even chaotic and
thus threatening from the perspective of a non-specialist such as an ordinary
language teacher.


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 Models of listening process

In terms of language processing, it is now generally accepted that learners need
access to both top-down and bottom-up processing strategies. Bottom-up
processing strategies focus learners on the individual components of spoken
messages, that is, the phonemes, individual words and grammatical elements which
need to be comprehended in order to understand the messages. Top-down
processing strategies, on the other hand, focus learners on macro-features of text
such as the speaker’s purpose, and the topic of the message (Nunan, 1998). It was
noted by Richards (1990) that an understanding of the role of bottom-up and topdown processes in listening is central to any theory of listening comprehension. It is,
of course, clear that we cannot see and observe the cognitive process of listening.
However, understanding the listening process can help us to rethink the methods of
teaching listening. For this purpose, there are three key components for clarifying
the listening process: bottom- up, top-down and interactive processes.
†

Bottom-up processing

Morley (1991) maintained that bottom-up processing of language information is
evoked by an external source, that is, by the incoming language data itself. Bottomup comprehension of speech, then, refers to the part of the process in which the
understanding of incoming language is worked out from converting sounds into
words, into lexical meaning and grammatical relationships and so on to an
understanding of the meaning of the message. Thus, the meaning of a message is
based on the incoming language data. Moreover, Buck (2001) suggested that in

bottom-up processing, the process takes place in a definite order, starting with the
lowest level of detail and moving up to the highest level. That is, the input is first
decoded into phonemes which are used to identify individual words. Then the
syntactic level continues processing on to the next higher stage followed by an
analysis of the semantics to arrive at a literal understanding of the basic linguistic
meaning. Finally, the listener interprets the literal meaning in terms of the
communicative situation to understand what the speaker means. Nunan (1998)


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remarked that the characteristics of the bottom-up approach focus learners on the
individual components of spoken messages that is the phonemes, individual words
and grammatical elements which need to be comprehended in order to understand
the message. A similar view was proposed by Carrel (1988), who indicated that
listeners construct meaning from the smallest units of letters and words to larger
ones like phrases, clauses, sentences, and paragraphs. According to the bottom-up
model, the meaning of the message is thus based on the incoming language data
combined with linguistic knowledge of different types including phonology, lexis,
syntax, semantics and discourse structure. This is why some scholars (Carrell, 1988
and Brown, 2001) described this model as text-based and data driven processing.
Accordingly, bottom-up processing of language information, or text-based
processing refers to the use of incoming data as a source of information about the
meaning of a message. Examples of bottom-up processing in listening viewed as a
process of decoding include the following:
(1) Scanning the input to identify familiar lexical items
(2) Segmenting the stream of speech into constituents – for example, in order to

recognize that “a-book-of-mine” consists of four words.

(3) Using phonological cues to identify the information focus in an utterance.
(4) Using grammatical cues to organize the input into constituents – for

example, in order to recognize that in “the book which I lent you” “the book”
and “which I lent you” are the major constituents rather than “the book
which I” and “lent you” (Richards, 1990).
The listener’s lexical and grammatical competence in a language provides the basis
for bottom-up processing. A person’s lexical competence serves as a mental
dictionary to which incoming words are referred for meaning assignment.
Grammatical competence, thus, can be seen as a set of strategies that are applied to
the analysis of incoming data.
†

Top-down processing

Chaudron and Richards (1986) noted that top-down processing involves prediction
and inference on the basis of facts, propositions and expectations. That is it is quite


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possible to understand the meaning of a word before decoding its sounds because
we have different types of knowledge, including knowledge of the world. This idea
comes from real life situations in which we know what normally happens, and so
we have expectations in mind about what we will hear. Top-down processing, then,
comes from an internal source evoked from prior knowledge and global
expectations. These include expectations about language and expectations about
the world. Background knowledge may take several forms: previous knowledge
about the topic of discourse, situational or contextual knowledge, and knowledge
stored in long- term memory in the form of “schemata” and “scripts” (Richards,

1990). The term ‘schema’ is defined in Rumelhart (1980) as a data structure for
representing generic concepts stored in memory. Carrell and Eisterhold (1983)
additionally pointed out that background information in the listener’s mind is of
two kinds: content schemata and formal schemata. Content schemata include
cultural knowledge, topic familiarity, and previous experiences. Formal schemata,
on the other hand, involve people’s knowledge of discourse forms: text types,
rhetorical conventions, and the structural organization of prose. Both content and
formal schemata facilitate the listeners’ comprehension of text. Clearly, schemata
or scripts are closely related to top-down processing in listening comprehension.
According to Buck (2001), top-down processing utilizes various types of knowledge
involved in understanding language and these are not applied in any fixed order. In
fact, they can be used in any order or the application of the different types of
knowledge used in processing may occur simultaneously. For example, syntactic
knowledge might be used to help identify a word, or idea about the topic of
conversation. Knowledge of the context will also help interpret the meaning.
In the same vein, Anderson and Lynch (1988) posited that meaning does not reside
exclusively within the words. It also exists in the head of the listener. Successful
listeners are those who can make use of both the knowledge inside and outside
their heads to interpret what they hear. Therefore, the use of knowledge inside the
head is the use of knowledge which is not directly encoded in words. This topdown view of listening is also known as knowledge-based processing.


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Examples of top-down processing in listening which make use of background
knowledge in understanding the meaning of a message include:
(1) Assigning an interaction to part of a particular event, such as storytelling,

telling a joke, praying, and complaining.
(2) Assigning places, persons, or things to categories.

(3) Inferring cause and effect relationships.
(4) Anticipating outcomes.
(5) Inferring the topic of a discourse.
(6) Inferring the sequence between events.
(7) Inferring missing details (Richards, 1990).
†

Interactive processing

An extension of the ideas of bottom-up and top-down processing is the view that
listening comprehension actually involves interactive processing. That is, listening
comprehension is a combination of bottom-up and top-down processing. It was
suggested by Richards (1990) that in accounting for the nature of processing
spoken language, bottom-up and top-down modes work together in a cooperative
process.
O’Malley, et al. (1989) also found that effective second language listeners used
both top-down and bottom-up strategies to construct meaning while ineffective
listeners try to decode the meanings of individual words. The point is simply that
listening comprehension is the result of an interaction between a numbers of
pieces of knowledge. To comprehend spoken language, listeners have to use many
types of knowledge. The knowledge of individual linguistic units such as phonemes,
words, or grammatical structures, and the role of the listener’s expectation, the
situation, background knowledge, and the topic are all important for listeners to
be able to understand speech. In other words, listeners use whatever information
they have to interpret what the speaker is saying.


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Studies have been carried out to specify the types of processing skilled, listeners

mostly rely on. It was found that skilled listeners are better able to use top- down,
or knowledge based processes whereas less-skilled listeners tend to rely on bottomup, or text-based processes. Hildyard and Olson (1982, cited in Rubin, 1994), for
example, studying the comprehension and memory of oral versus written
discourse, found that skilled listeners use a knowledge-based mode of text
processing whereas less-skilled listeners attend mostly to local details. Similarly,
Shohamy and Inbar (1991), in a study of the effect of text and question type on
listening comprehension, found that less-skilled listeners performed much better
on ‘local questions’ which required the listener to identify details and facts, than on
‘global questions’ which required the listener to synthesize information, draw
conclusions and make inferences. They, therefore, concluded that while high level
listeners seemed to process the text in a knowledge-based manner, the low level
listeners seemed to process the text in a data-driven manner. Some studies,
however, have indicated that skilled listeners are those who are able to monitor
their developing interpretation of the incoming text by constantly checking it
against the incoming linguistic cues and to modify their interpretation
accordingly. For example, Buck (1990) stated that listeners must check and
monitor their developing interpretation in the light of the linguistic input and their
background knowledge to ensure that the interpretation is a reasonable one. Buck
maintained that the ability to adjust the interpretation in response to new
information is obviously an important listening skill. Moreover, Richards (1990)
pointed out that good listeners use a number of processes simultaneously to reach
an understanding of incoming speech.
In brief, in listening comprehension, bottom-up and top-down processing are corelated in a complex relationship and both are used to interpret meaning. To arrive
at an understanding of the message, listeners must understand the phonetic input,
vocabulary, and syntax (bottom-up processing), and at the same time, use the
context of situations, general knowledge, and past experiences (top-down
processing). That is, to construct the meaning, listeners are not passively listening


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to speakers but are actively reconstructing the speakers’ intended meaning and
getting meaningful information by decoding the sounds, words, and phrases.
2.3.
Related studies
2.3.1. Related research on listening comprehension

As teachers and scholars grow to understand the unique characteristics of listening
skill and the significant role it plays in language learning and communication, they
recognize more and more the importance of teaching listening comprehension in
the second language classroom. This recognition has resulted in an increase in the
number of listening activities in student textbooks and even in methodology texts
designed specifically for listening. There is, however, only a small body of research
on listening comprehension since it is difficult to gain direct access to the listening
process (Yian, 1998). Two of researches in listening comprehension were about
listener characteristics and process characteristics.
 Listener characteristics

Listener characteristics appear to have considerable impact on an individual’s
listening comprehension. Among these characteristics are: language proficiency
level, memory, age, gender, and background knowledge.
First, language proficiency level is a major variable in almost all of the studies. A
major problem in comparing studies is that there are few standardized tests to
determine proficiency level. Most studies use either teacher judgment, course level,
or a performance on a nonstandard test. Most researchers suggested that cognitive
processing varies depending on the learners’ knowledge of the language. It is not
clear what role grammar, vocabulary, background knowledge of the culture, or
knowledge of discourse processes play at different proficiency levels. However, the
use of standardized listening proficiency tests such as those of the American
Council of the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and The Interagency

Language Roundtable (ILR) is working towards a standard to be used in listening
comprehension researches (Rubin, 1994). It is clear that language proficiency is a
variable that needs to be considered in every study.


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Second, the relationship between memory and listening comprehension is complex.
Call (1985) considered whether listening comprehension was related to short-term
memory for five types of auditory input: sentences in context, isolated sentences,
random words, random digits, and musical tones. She found that listening
comprehension was correlated with these five types in the following order: isolated
sentences, sentences in context, musical tones, random words, and random digits
Also, Dunkel et al (1989) considered the influence of short-term memory on
encoding lecture material in English. They studied students taking college
freshman English classes. The students were native and non-native speakers who
were presumably at an advanced level in English. They found that subjects who
had high short-term memory correctly recognized more concept information and
detail information than subjects who had low short-term memory. Moreover, they
found that native speakers recognized significantly more of the lecture concepts
and detail than did non-native speakers of English. In addition, Conrad (1989,
cited in Rubin, 1994) compared the memory of non-native speakers at high and
medium-skill levels for recorded sentence at different speaking rates. She found
that non-native speakers tended to ignore information in the middle of sentences.
Rather, they tried to duplicate the beginnings or ends of sentences. Third, age is an
important variable affecting second language achievement. Seright (1985)
considered the relationship between age and L2 achievement of adults in an
instructional setting. Working with members of the Canadian Armed Forces
undergoing English language training in Quebec, she used 71 learners who ranged
in age from 17 – 41 years of age with a mean age of 22.76 years. Seright divided

the students into two groups: an older group (aged 25 to 41) and a younger group
(aged 17 to 24). Both groups were compared with respect to short-term
development in aural comprehension. She found that the mean gain was
significantly greater for younger subjects than for older subjects. Her study
suggested that in adult L2 learners, the rate of achievement in aural
comprehension decreases with increasing age.


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Fourth, only a few studies have examined gender in listening skill. Some studies
have considered how gender may relate to differences in listening comprehension.
For example, Boyle (1987) used Chinese students of English between 18 – 20 years
old in his research. Using a battery of tests including a vocabulary recall, a
listening passage,

a listening conversation, two

dictations, vocabulary

identifications given orally, as well as other items not related directly to listening,
he found that males did significantly better on two tests of listening vocabulary,
and woman did significantly better on all other tests. However, some studies could
not find a significant relationship between gender and listening comprehension.
For instance, Feyten (1991) looked at university students of French and Spanish.
She found that L1 listening ability was significantly related to foreign language
listening comprehension. However, she failed to find a significant relationship
between gender and any foreign language proficiency measure. Bacon (1992)
looked at university students of Spanish and also failed to find a significant
relationship between gender and listening comprehension. Similarly, Markham

found no significant differences between men and woman ESL students in their
level of comprehension though all listeners paid more attention to male speakers
than to female speakers. Markham concluded that male speakers were prejudged
by listeners to be more expert than female speakers.
Fifth, several studies have considered the role of background knowledge in
listening comprehension. Long (1990, cited in Rubin, 1994) considered whether
Spanish FL listeners comprehend better when they possess schemata relevant to
the listening topic. The subjects were students enrolled in a third quarter
university Spanish course. Before beginning the experiment, the students
completed a survey of their background of the two subjects used namely “gold
rushes” and “rock groups”. Two measures of comprehension were used: a recall
protocol and a recognition test consisting of paraphrased statements in English
about the texts. According to the survey results, students possessed less
information about gold rushes than about rock groups. Long found that recall
protocols for the rock passage revealed a significantly higher number of correct


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idea units than the protocol for the gold rush passage. This suggested that
background knowledge may be related to listening comprehension.
Schmidt-Rinehart (1992, cited in Rubin, 1994) also considered how topic
familiarity and proficiency level affect recall measures of listening comprehension.
Students from three sections of first, second and third quarter university Spanish
classes listened to two passages, one about a familiar topic and another about a
novel topic. Comprehension was assessed through a recall protocol. Results showed
that both topic familiarity and course level affect measures of listening
comprehension. All subjects recalled significantly more information from the
familiar topic and the improvement in comprehension scores ascended with the
quarter level. Finally, Chiang and Dunkel (1992) studied male undergraduate

students at an intermediate level of English at the Chinese Naval Academy in the
Republic of China. They used a 650 - word lecture on “the Amish people and the
Pennsylvania Dutch Country” (a topic considered unfamiliar to students) and a 68word lecture on “Confucius and Confucianism” (a topic considered familiar to
students). They found that the students gained significantly higher scores on the
familiar text than the unfamiliar text. In all studies, background knowledge is
shown to enhance listening comprehension.
 Process characteristics

The process of listening is probably more difficult to research than the other four
factors because processes consist of internal operations which are not easy to
measure directly. Processes refer to how listeners interpret input in terms of what
they know or identify what they do not know and are classified as either top-down
or bottom-up processing. Process also refers to the way in which listeners use
different kinds of signals to interpret what is said, and this is known as listening
strategies.
First, there is an ongoing discussion in L2 research as to whether listeners use their
knowledge of the world, situations, and roles of human interaction to focus on
meaning (top-down) and then use their knowledge of words, syntax, and grammar