ELT365 · Day 154 — Bottom-Up Processing: Sounds Build Meaning

Idea — Bottom-up processing starts with the signal — letters, phonemes, words — and builds up to meaning. It is essential when context is unclear or vocabulary is unknown.

Example — Learners decoding a medical form must process every word carefully; background knowledge about health does not compensate for unknown technical terms.

Try — Read a short sentence aloud very fast, then at natural speed, then slowly. Ask learners what they caught each time. Compare — this shows the processing load shift.

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