begin with understanding the phonetic level and gradually move to higher level: syllabic, lexical, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and interpretative level.
9
Consequently, meaning is obtained once the listener reaches the last step in the process.
The top-down model has a closer meaning to the description of listening in the beginning of this skripsi. It views listening as a process wherein the listener
actively reconstructs the original meaning of the speaker by using incoming sounds as clues. The listener uses background knowledge as well as the context
and situation to make sense of what he or she hears.
10
In other words, the listener uses what heshe already know to predict what the message will contain, and uses
parts of the message to confirm, correct or add to this ‗prediction‘. In this
scenario, understanding is obtained gradually by the listener. Understanding these two processing models is necessary when teachers need
to develop courses, materials, or lessons. For example, teachers should not only teach bottom-up processing skills, like the skill to differentiate minimal pair, but
also encourage students to use their background knowledge and see the context. For example, a teacher who is teaching the minimal pair
І and i: may not only give the explanation of how the phonetic symbols sound. The teacher can give a
sentence like “The sheep is in the field” and ask the students to examine the clues
in the sentence in order to decide which phonetic sound is present. For classroom activities, the students may use a processing model for a particular purpose and
the other for a different purpose. For example in listening to details, bottom-up model is used, while in listening for gist, the top-down model is used.
Ideally, the real listening process is the integration of the botom-up and top- down models. Sometimes listeners need to pick up the details in order to
understand the whole utterance, while other times they need to rely on their background knowledge.
11
9
Ian S. P. Nation and Jonathan Newton, Teaching ESLEFL Listening and Speaking, New York: Routledge, 2009, p. 40.
10
David Nunan, loc. cit.
11
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Malaysia: Pearson Education Limited, 2001, 3
rd
Edition, p. 201.
3. The Kinds of Listening
Brown stated that there are two forms which spoken language takes. It can be in the form of monologue or dialogue. The examples of monologue are speeches,
lectures, readings, or news broadcast, while the example of dialogue is a conversation between two people.
12
In real life, people generally have a purpose in listening, no matter to which form. They may listen to a news broadcast to find
out about the winner of the election, for instance. They listen to a stranger when asking for direction, they listen to a lecturer when they are in the class, etc.
Primarily, there are five kinds of listening sub-skills in accordanc e to listeners‘
purpose, as described by Harmer.
13
Teachers can use this knowledge to develop students‘ skill in the classroom. The sub-skills are:
a. Confirming expectation or making prediction
Listeners usually have expectation of what they are going to hear. For example, when someone turns on the television and sees a montage of volcano
eruption, he will expect and probably predict that the news will be about a disaster. He will listen to see if the information confirms his expectation. As he
listens, his prediction may or may not be confirmed until finally he forms an understanding of the news.
b. Getting the general picture
Frequently, people listen to something to get the gist, or the general information. In this case, details are not very important or relevant. Getting the
main point of an utterance is essential, especially in spoken language where redundancy is expected. The example is when a person is conversing with his
friend about a movie. His friend tells him the details of the movie from the beginning to the end and the details of every character. In this case, the listener
could focus on the main idea of the movie and ignore the details, as they are irrelevant and arduous to keep up with.
12
H. Douglas Brown, op. cit., p. 251.
13
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching New Edition, New York: Longman, 1991, pp. 183
– 184.
c. Extracting specific information
Listeners very often listen to something only to get some pieces of information. They can listen to a radio show but only to get the information about
their favourite musician, for instance. It does not mean the listeners do not understand the rest of the information; they are still aware of it, only not very
focused. In the classroom, the example of activity is listening to a weekly weather forecast.
14
Teacher may ask the students to find out if the weather is sunny on Tuesday. Hence they will focus on the keyword sunny and Tuesday when they are
listening to the forecast. d.
Extracting detailed information. This is the opposite of listening to get the general picture.
A listener‘s purpose can be to get as much information as possible while heshe listens
intensively. The listener should be able to extract the details from the utterance. The examples are when someone is listening to an important lecture, to the
announcement in the airport, or to the ingredients of a recipe. In these kinds of listening, details are significant.
e. Recognizing function and discourse pattern.
When native English speakers hear someone say ―for example‖ they know that what will follow is an exam
ple. When they hear ―in addition‖, they will expect another piece of information. When they hear ―on the contrary‖, they know
that what comes after is a contrasting idea. Recognizing these patterns is necessary because when people listen, these patterns give clues of what to come
and more importantly, give some time for listeners to think.
4. The Teaching of Listening
Listening can be taught intensively or extensively. This will lead to the terms intensive and extensive listening. Intensive listening is the common technique. It
usually occurs in the classroom, where students practice listening to one or multiple material thoroughly under the guidance of the teacher. Broughton
describes this as ―the close study and exploitation of a text for its meaning and the
14
Ibid., p. 217.
