STRATEGIES FOR
DEVELOPING
LISTENING SKILLS
GLADYS T. AMBUYAT
BSED III- ENGLISH
“When people talk, listen
completely. Most people never
listen.”
― Ernest Hemingway*
“We have two ears and only one
tongue in order that we may hear
more and speak less.”
― Diogenes Laertius^
*an American author and journalist
^a biographer of the Greek philosophers
Have you had any problems
dealing with listening
exercises?
How much do you know
about listening?
Let’s find out!
Do you agree with this?
 Language learning depends on
listening.
 When you listen to a conversation in
English, you try to understand every
word.
 Listening to songs and radio
programs in English are two of the
best ways to learn the language.
When you disagree with a speaker's
message, you usually stop paying
attention.
When you agree with a speaker's message
you usually nod.
Your role as a listener is to show interest.
As you listen to someone speak you take
notes to help yourself understand the
message.
How much do learners retain from the
listening input?
Why is
listening an
important skill
to develop in
your language
learners?
Because language learners need it:
 To obtain information
 To understand
 For enjoyment
 To learn
 To communicate
Listening is the language modality^
that is used most frequently but…
…why is listening in English
so hard?
^is the way or mode in which something exists or is done; shares its root with the word mode,
meaning "the way in which something happens or is experienced."
Because…
 Students have to process the messages as
they come, cope with the speaker’s choice
of vocabulary, structure, and rate of
delivery.
 The complexity of the listening process is
magnified in second language context where
the listener also has an incomplete control
of the language.
It is essential for language
teachers to help our students
become effective active listeners.
How can we do so?
By modeling listening strategies
By providing active listening
practice
Next slide>>TEACHING STRATEGIES
What are listening strategies?
are techniques or activities that
contribute directly to the comprehension
and recall of listening input.
can be classified by how the listener
processes the input.
These are:
Top down, Bottom up and Metacognitive
*STRATEGY -Is a high level plan to achieve one or more goals under
conditions of uncertainty.
--an elaborate and systematic plan of action
Top - Down Listening Strategies
refers to the use of background knowledge in
understanding the meaning of the message.
Background knowledge
Consists of context, the situation and topic,
and co-text(what came before and after).
>>CONDUCT AN ACTIVITY USING THE TOP DOWN LISTENING
STRATEGY
Top - Down Listening Strategies
are listener based; the listener taps into background
knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the
type of text, and the language. This background
knowledge activates a set of expectations that help
the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate
what will come next.
Top-down strategies include:
•listening for the main idea
•Predicting
•drawing inferences
•summarizing
>>CONDUCT AN ACTIVITY USING THE TOP DOWN LISTENING
STRATEGY
Top - Down Listening Strategies
Top down strategy focuses on content. Students can predict
the content of listening activity beforehand and use various
materials such as pictures and key words to understand the
meaning. This strategy is more broad approach than bottomup and related with daily lives. When we watch drama or
movie, we usually focus on whole meaning, not structure or
forms. Likewise, we listen to news programs to grasp overall
content and music by understanding the whole meaning.
Some people do these activities by using bottom-up strategy,
but this is rare case. The materials that can be used in topdown are prevalent. Teachers can use authentic information.
When students listen to real-life story, it can increase their
interest and make them think about main idea more seriously.
>>CONDUCT AN ACTIVITY USING THE TOP DOWN LISTENING
STRATEGY
Top-Down Listening Activities
• putting a series of pictures or sequence of events in
order.
• Listening to conversation and identify where they
take place
• Reading information about a topic then listening to
find whether or not the same points are mentioned.
• Inferring the relationship between the people
involved.
Bottom – up Listening Strategies
They are text based. The listener relies
on the language in the message (sounds,
words, and grammar that creates
meaning)
Bottom-up strategies include:
•listening for specific details
•Recognizing cognates
•Recognizing word-order patterns
>>CONDUCT AN ACTIVITY USING THE BOTTOM UP LISTENING
STRATEGY
Bottom – up Listening Strategies
Bottom up strategy is to know about details and segments. It
concentrates on forms and structure. Thus, this activity is
more related with academic study. English learning students
use this activity to enhance their listening ability. Dictation and
listening tests are included in this. In class, ‘fill in the blank/s’
activity can increase students’ awareness of forms. However,
bottom-up strategy doesn’t mean that it excludes all authentic
things. When we need deep concentration on details, we use
this activity. For example, weather forecast, phone number
and advertisement having implied meaning need special
focus on details to understand. Besides, tongue twists can be
a good exercise for students to notice subtle difference in
various English forms and pronunciation.
>>CONDUCT AN ACTIVITY USING THE BOTTOM UP LISTENING
STRATEGY
Tongue Twister
How much dew does a dewdrop drop
If dewdrops do drop dew?
They do drop, they do
As do dewdrops drop
If dewdrops do drop dew.
Can you imagine an imaginary menagerie manager
imagining managing an imaginary menagerie?
Successful listening depends on the ability to
combine top-down and bottom-up
processing.
Activities which work separately should help
students to combine top-down and bottomup processes to become more effective
listeners in real-life or longer classroom
listening.
Meta cognitive Listening Strategies
In general, metacognition is thinking about
thinking. More specifically, Taylor (1999)
defines metacognition as “an appreciation of
what one already knows, together with a
correct apprehension of the learning task and
what knowledge and skills it requires,
combined with the agility to make correct
inferences about how to apply one’s strategic
knowledge to a particular situation, and to do
so efficiently and reliably.”
Metacognition is defined as "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about
knowing."[1] It can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use
particular strategies for learning or for problem solving. There are generally two
components of metacognition: knowledge about cognition, and regulation of cognition. >>CONDUCT AN ACTIVITY USING THE META COGNITIVE LISTENING STRATEGY
Meta cognitive Listening Strategies
Used to plan, monitor, and evaluate
their listening.
•They plan deciding which listening strategies
will serve best in particular situation
•They monitor their comprehension and the
effectiveness of the selected strategies
•They evaluate by determining whether they
have achieved their listening comprehension
goals and whether the combination of listening
strategies selected was an effective one
Metacognition is defined as "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about
knowing."[1] It can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use
particular strategies for learning or for problem solving. There are generally two
components of metacognition: knowledge about cognition, and regulation of cognition. >>CONDUCT AN ACTIVITY USING THE META COGNITIVE LISTENING STRATEGY
Meta cognitive Listening Strategies
Actions that the learner deliberately
takes to enhance comprehension and
oversee and regulate the listening process.
They include actions such as: planning,
monitoring, evaluation and problem
solving.
Metacognition is defined as "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about
knowing."[1] It can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use
particular strategies for learning or for problem solving. There are generally two
components of metacognition: knowledge about cognition, and regulation of cognition. >>CONDUCT AN ACTIVITY USING THE META COGNITIVE LISTENING STRATEGY
Meta cognitive Listening Strategies
Advanced Organization:
 anticipating to the listening task, predicting,
clarifying objectives for listening
Directed attention:
 deciding to maintain attention to the listening task,
avoiding Distractors.
Selective attention:
 planning to pay attention or language situational
aspects that may facilitate comprehension.
Meta cognitive Listening Strategies
My Predictions
Vocabulary
 diets
 rules at home
 overweight strict
 meals
 table
 The topic: What may parents do to prevent
their children from gaining weight?
Meta cognitive Listening Strategies
Comprehension monitoring:
 Checking, verifying or correcting one’s
understanding.
Double check monitoring:
 checking one’s understanding during the second
listening or across the task.
Meta cognitive Listening Strategies
Monitoring comprehension
 I have understood
 the stricter parents are at table, the more likely
are to become overweight.
 I need to listen harder
 something about highly demanding that I
couldn’t understand in the first listening.
Meta cognitive Listening Strategies
Performance evaluation:
 judging one’s performance in the execution of the
listening task.
Strategy evaluation:
 evaluating the strategies used and their
effectiveness.
Meta cognitive Listening Strategies
Problem solving:
 Identifying what needs resolution in a
listening task, or an aspect that interferes with
its accomplishment. Then, using a cognitive
strategy to solve the problem.
Tips for Helping our Students Become
Active Listeners
 Activate your students’ prior
knowledge before any listening activity
in order to predict or anticipate
content.
 Assess your students' background
knowledge on the topic and linguistic
content of the text.
Tips for Helping our Students Become
Active Listeners
If students are to complete a written
task during or immediately after
listening, allow them to read through
it before listening.
Use questions to focus students'
attention on the elements of the text
crucial to comprehension of the
whole.
Use predicting to encourage students
to monitor their comprehension as
they listen
Remind students to review what they
are hearing to see if it makes sense in
the context of their prior knowledge
and what they already know of the
topic or events of the passage.
Use visual aids such as maps,
diagrams, pictures, or the images on
the video to help contextualize the
input and provide clues to meaning.
>>NEXT SLIDE-SUMMARY
To sum it up….
The three
strategies for
developing
Listening Skills are:
Top down -refers to the
use of background
knowledge in
understanding the
meaning of the message.
putting a series of pictures or
sequence of events in order.
 Listening to conversation and
identify where they take place
 Reading information about a
topic then listening to find
whether or not the same points
are mentioned.
 Inferring the relationship
between the people involved.
To sum it up….
The three
strategies for
developing
Listening Skills are:
Bottom up - know about
details and segments. It
concentrates on forms and
structure. Thus, this strategy
is more related with
academic study. English
learning students use this
activity to enhance their
listening ability.
•Dictation and listening tests are
included in this.
•In class, ‘fill in the blank/s’ activity can
increase students’ awareness of forms.
•tongue twists can be a good exercise
for students to notice subtle difference
in various English forms and
pronunciation.
THANK YOU