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Introduction
English is utilized as the second language (ESL) in many Asian countries such as India, Indonesia, Singapore, and Bangladesh. People live in these countries are highly exposed to the language environment, which forces them to use the English discourses in their everyday life. However, in some other Asian countries, such as Korean, Japan and China, English is regarded as a foreign language (EFL), which means English is only taught in classrooms. That is to say, the language proficiency of learners from different Asian countries can vary significantly, especially in listening and speaking. Therefore, teaching methods which can be efficient in enhancing learners’ listening and speaking competence in both ESL and EFL contexts will probably be the main concern of my master’s dissertation. The area I specifically intend to discover is the effective teaching methods and learning strategies both inside and outside the language classrooms. A portion of rationales and some relative issues will be further presented in the following paragraphs of this paper.
What is involved in the listening process?
Based on my previous knowledge, there are 2 different procedures involved in understanding a spoken discourse. They are bottom-up process and top-down process.
According my understanding of their definitions, bottom-up process refers to the use of incoming information as the basis for understanding. Listeners must pay attention to the sounds, words, clauses, sentences and even intonation patterns of the spoken discourses. Incoming voices need to be analyzed by segmenting speech into identifiable sounds before they get the meaning of the discourse. In other words, in the bottom-up process, knowledge of grammar, phonetics and vocabulary of target language will be used to analyze and process the incoming voice.
As to the top-down process, listeners’ prior knowledge will be used to understand the meaning of a message. Therefore, top-down comprehension strategies involve knowledge that a listener brings to the text rather than the knowledge that the learners get from the text directly.
Any teaching methods and learning strategies for listening must conform to the bottom-up and top-down process and make good use of these two theories. Therefore, I wish I could explore more about these two theories during my next study, so that I can grasp effective methods to improve ESL and EFL learners’ listening comprehensive skills. What Listening
English is utilized as the second language (ESL) in many Asian countries such as India, Indonesia, Singapore, and Bangladesh. People live in these countries are highly exposed to the language environment, which forces them to use the English discourses in their everyday life. However, in some other Asian countries, such as Korean, Japan and China, English is regarded as a foreign language (EFL), which means English is only taught in classrooms. That is to say, the language proficiency of learners from different Asian countries can vary significantly, especially in listening and speaking. Therefore, teaching methods which can be efficient in enhancing learners’ listening and speaking competence in both ESL and EFL contexts will probably be the main concern of my master’s dissertation. The area I specifically intend to discover is the effective teaching methods and learning strategies both inside and outside the language classrooms. A portion of rationales and some relative issues will be further presented in the following paragraphs of this paper.
What is involved in the listening process?
Based on my previous knowledge, there are 2 different procedures involved in understanding a spoken discourse. They are bottom-up process and top-down process.
According my understanding of their definitions, bottom-up process refers to the use of incoming information as the basis for understanding. Listeners must pay attention to the sounds, words, clauses, sentences and even intonation patterns of the spoken discourses. Incoming voices need to be analyzed by segmenting speech into identifiable sounds before they get the meaning of the discourse. In other words, in the bottom-up process, knowledge of grammar, phonetics and vocabulary of target language will be used to analyze and process the incoming voice.
As to the top-down process, listeners’ prior knowledge will be used to understand the meaning of a message. Therefore, top-down comprehension strategies involve knowledge that a listener brings to the text rather than the knowledge that the learners get from the text directly.
Any teaching methods and learning strategies for listening must conform to the bottom-up and top-down process and make good use of these two theories. Therefore, I wish I could explore more about these two theories during my next study, so that I can grasp effective methods to improve ESL and EFL learners’ listening comprehensive skills. What Listening