ELT365 · Day 153 — Top-down processing: using what you know

Idea — Top-down processing means using prior knowledge — topic, context, genre — to make sense of a text before fully decoding it. It is fast and efficient when schema is strong.

Example — A learner sees a headline: ‘Central bank raises rates.’ Without reading further, she knows roughly what the article will argue. That is top-down at work.

Try — Give learners a headline only. Ask: ‘What do you predict this article is about?’ Note how much they build from schema alone.

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