ELT365 · Day 153 — Bottom-up vs top-down listening

Idea — Bottom-up processing builds meaning from sounds and words upward; top-down uses context and expectation to predict. Skilled listeners run both at once — diagnose which route a weak listener leans on before you choose the task.

Example — In a weather forecast you already expect temperature, rain, degrees — that is top-down. Catching the exact number spoken is bottom-up.

Try — Before playing a short news clip, ask a learner to predict five words they expect to hear. Then check: which predictions arrived, and which words were caught by ear alone?

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