Bottom up listening refers to speech processing skills for detecting sound: identifying phonemes, rhythm, cadence, stress, word recognition. Our first language (L1) teaches us the “possible sounds” of a language by an early age, so when we acquire a second language (unless it’s done simultaneously with the L1) we need to deliberately reform our auditory processing system.
Here are some Deliberate Practice methods for working on L2 sound processing.
| Area of Practice | Form of Practice/ Repetition |
Learner Shift During Practice |
| Lower level skills | ||
| speech processing: minimal pairs | series of pairs of phonological phrases that are identical or “minimally different” (e.g. Do you repair clocks? Do you repair clogs?); students listen and say “same” or “different”. | improved ability to detect minimally different words |
| speech processing: noticing assimilations | series of very short (5-7 seconds) bursts of speech, with recognition practice (such as T/F questions or fill in blanks) for problematic sequences (such as phrases with assimilated sounds) | improved ability to listen to fast speech, improved ability to decode assimilated phrases; improved interest in hearing spoken language variations |
| speech processing: word stress | series of phrases, delivered orally;students repeat or indicate the stressed syllables; or students do “word spotting”, writing down any words they have heard | improved ability to attend to stress, pick out target words; improved ability to distinguish word boundaries |
| speech processing: detecting sentence stress | series of sentences (or “idea units”); students indicate the most stressed word in each | improved ability to identify words in the stream of speech |
| speech processing: parsing grammatical structures | series of short comprehensible sentences (or “idea units”) with complex grammar, slightly above students’ productive ability; students choose correct written form of utterance, or write/fill in blanks | improved ability to segment speech into component words; improved ability to make grammatical sentences from words recognized in speech |
| Vocabulary recognition: picking out words in a stream of speech | series of short extracts (25 words) with m/c or blank fills in for identifying which target words were uttered | improved ability to recognize words; improved ability to identify boundaries of “unknown words” |
| Grammatical parsing: making sense of phonological strings | series of short extracts (25 words) with target grammatical structures blanked out; listeners attempt to fill in missing parts | improved ability to understand unsimplified/natural speed speech; improved ability to construct grammatical sentences in speech and writing |
| Higher level skills | ||
| Memory Building:Questions about reconstructing a story | series of short stories, involving multiple actions and sequences | improved attention span, improved recall |
| Recognizing Literal Meaning:Questions about facts, details, or information explicitly stated in the audio story | series of short extracts (25-50 words) with questions or T/F paraphrases about literal meaning (what was explicitly stated vs. inferable) | increased awareness of literal vs. implied meaning |
| Understanding Vocabulary: Questions about the meanings of words as they are used in the context of the extract | series of short extracts (10-25 words) with questions (synonyms, rephrasings) about specific vocabulary items | increase in receptive vocabulary |
| Making Inferences:Questions asking students to make inferences as they listen to audio stories, interpreting what is said by going beyond the literal meaning | series of short statements (10-25 words) with questions about what can be inferred from what was spoken | improved ability to listen “actively”, making inferences while listening |
| Identifying Main Idea:Questions asking students to identify the main idea or gist of an audio story | series of short extracts (30-60 seconds) with questions (T/F) or m/c or open-ended about the main idea | improved ability to listen selectively for most important information |
| Summarizing Content:Questions asking students to summarize the content of an audio story | series of short extracts (20 seconds, 100 words); students work alone or in pairs to create short (10-20 word) summaries | improved ability to focus on main ideas, ability to formulate coherent short summaries |
| Determining Point of View:Questions asking students to determine a speaker’s point of view or perspective in an audio story | series of short extracts (30-60 seconds), such as movie scenes (in audio only or video formats), in which the characters have identifiable perspectives or emotional states. | improved ability to discern differences of emotional states in characters |
| Analyzing Reasoning:Questions asking students to analyze a speaker’s reasoning or draw conclusions based on an audio extract | series of short extracts, personal opinions about a topic or issue | improved reasoning ability; tolerance for differing viewpoints |
| Finding Evidence:Questions asking students to identify statements or details in an audio story that provide evidence to support inferences, interpretations, or conclusions | series of short stories (2-3 minutes), involving problem-solution structure | improved critical thinking while listening |
