Approaches to teaching the language skill of listening : practical and theoretical considerations

Two main approaches, based on the two fundamental processes involved in listening comprehension, are employed to teach the skill of listening to students studying English. Listening activities may be based on either ”top-down” processing or ”bottom-up” processing, invisible proc-esses that occur in the brain and are the basic ways in which spoken messages are processed and understood. Top-down and bottom-up neurolinguistic processes are complementary and both are necessary in learning to understand spoken English. Effective language teaching should address both processes. In addition to these two main approaches, many other important issues related to the development of listening skills need to be addressed by language teachers. These issues include the different kinds of specific activities that can be used to develop and enhance the listening ability and comprehension level of students. Other important issues involved in listening are the importance and nature of language input, specific listening skills and strategies, and the integration of listening comprehension activities with a variety of other skills in classroom instruction.