When working with listening, what decisions do teachers have to make concerning the following: choice of input, top down processing (activating appropriate schemata), vocabulary access, bottom up processing (hearing sounds, recognizing words, parsing), dealing with misunderstandings and developing listening strategies? How might research in any of these areas influence a curriculum or classroom teaching decisions?

Skim over the “claims” that are stated at the beginning of each of the research sections. Which of these claims do you intuitively agree with? Which do you not agree with? What experiences have you had as a language learner or language teacher that lead you to accept or reject any of these claims?