Listening as a Skill

18 1 Bottom Up Processing Bottom up processing happens when “the students start with the component parts: words, grammar, and the like” Nunan, 2003: 26. In other words, bottom-up is text based. It means that the listener relies on the language in the message, that is, the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning. The listeners process the information from the very basic or small part of language, i.e. sounds into the bigger one, such as words, phrases, clauses, and sentences. Anderson and Lynch 2003: 9 prefer to use the term “tape recorder” to describe the listeners in bottom up processing. Thus, it implies that the listeners will simply memorize and recall words that speakers said. However, bottom up processing does not merely receive and store audio input, but the listeners also need to interpret linguistics input through mental process Goh, 2002: 5. 2 Top Down Processing In opposite to the bottom-up processing, top-down processing begins from the students’ background knowledge Nunan, 2003: 26. According to Morley 2001, in the top-down processing, the listeners trigger their existing knowledge to infer and predict the new information to create the meaning in mind. However, in this process, the learners need to have background knowledge in order to be able to convey the message. Top-down 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 expectation that helps the listener to interpret what is listened to and predict what will come next. Therefore, Anderson and Lynch 2003: 9 consider the listeners as “active model builders”. The PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 19 listeners do not come to class without any information. In fact, the listeners will actively build their own understanding on what they listen to by relating it with their existing knowledge. In top down processing, the teacher, as the facilitator of learning in the classroom, may help the students to prepare or to construct their prior knowledge on what is going to be learned. In preparing the students, reading activity can be a way to help students construct prior knowledge which is important for listening comprehension in the classroom.

3. Theory of Reading

Reading is very significant in life. Through reading, someone can be rich of important information. A piece of reading text can make someone know more. In other words, by reading, people will gain more knowledge. Reading is one of the ways to broaden knowledge. Besides, according to Raygor and Raygor 1985: 3, reading is also a great source of entertainment for many people. Therefore, it implies that reading is very useful to give the readers new information and also to entertain them. As a comprehension skill, reading is divided into two main types. The first type is extensive reading and the second one is intensive reading. The division of these two types is based on the quality and also quantity of information that students gain. Extensive reading emphasizes the amount of information that is gained from as many sources or texts as possible.