This series of posts from Interchange author Jack C. Richards considers how we teach listening skills. In his previous post, Jack analysed bottom-up processing; today, he moves on to explore the meaning of top-down processing.
Top-down processing refers to the use of background knowledge in understanding the meaning of a message. Whereas bottom-up processing goes from language to meaning, top-down processing goes from meaning to language. The background knowledge required for top-down processing may be previous knowledge about the topic of discourse, situational or contextual knowledge, or knowledge in the form of “schemata” or “scripts” – plans about the overall structure of events and the relationships between them.
For example, consider how we might respond to the following utterance:
“I heard on the news there was a big earthquake in China last night.”
On recognizing the word earthquake, we generate a set of questions for which we want answers:
- Where exactly was the earthquake?
- How big was it?
- Did it cause a lot of damage?
- Were many people killed or injured?
- What rescue efforts are under way?
These questions guide us through the understanding of any subsequent discourse that we hear, and they focus our listening on what is said in response to the questions.
Consider this example – Imagine I say the following to a colleague at my office one morning:
“I am going to the dentist this afternoon.”
This utterance activates a schema for “going to the dentist.” This schema can be thought of as organized around the following dimensions:
- A setting (e.g., the dentist’s office)
- Participants (e.g., the dentist, the patient, the dentist’s assistant)
- Goals (e.g., to have a checkup or to replace a filling)
- Procedures (e.g., injections, drilling, rinsing)
- Outcomes (e.g., fixing the problem, pain, discomfort)
When I return to my office, the following exchange takes place with my colleague:
“So how was it?”
“Fine. I didn’t feel a thing.”
Because speaker and hearer share understanding of the “going to the dentist” schema, the details of the visit need not be spelled out. Minimal information is sufficient to enable the participants to understand what happened. This is another example of the use of top-down processing.
Much of our knowledge of the world consists of knowledge about specific situations, the people one might expect to encounter in such situations, what their goals and purposes are, and how they typically accomplish them. Likewise, we have knowledge of thousands of topics and concepts, their associated meanings, and links to other topics and concepts. In applying this prior knowledge about things, concepts, people, and events to a particular utterance, comprehension can often proceed from the top down. The actual discourse heard is used to confirm expectations and to fill out details.
Consider the meaning of the expression “Good luck!” and how its meaning would differ if said as a response to each of the following statements:
- I’m going to the casino.
- I’m going to the dentist.
- I’m going to a job interview.
The meaning of “good luck” differs according to the situation we mentally refer it to and according to the background knowledge we bring to each situation when it is used.
If the listener is unable to make use of top-down processing, an utterance or discourse may be incomprehensible. Bottom-up processing alone often provides an insufficient basis for comprehension. Consider the following narrative, for example. Read it carefully one or two times. What is the topic?
Sally first tried setting loose a team of gophers. The plan backfired when a dog chased them away. She then entertained a group of teenagers and was delighted when they brought their motorcycles. Unfortunately, she failed to find a Peeping Tom listed in the Yellow Pages. Furthermore, her stereo system was not loud enough. The crabgrass might have worked, but she didn’t have a fan that was sufficiently powerful. … She thought about calling a door-to-door salesman but decided to hang up a clothesline instead. It was the installation of blinking neon lights across the street that did the trick. She eventually framed the ad from the classified section.
(Stein and Albridge, 1978)
At first, the narrative is virtually incomprehensible. However, once a schema is provided – “Getting rid of a troublesome neighbor” – the reader can make use of top-down processing and the elements of the story begin to fit in place as the writer describes a series of actions she took to try to annoy her neighbor and cause him to leave.
Read other posts in this series at the links below.
Teaching Listening and Speaking – From Theory to Practice: an introduction
Teaching listening #1 – Listening as comprehension
Teaching listening #2 – Bottom-up processing
Teaching listening #3 – Top-down processing
Teaching listening #4 – Teaching top-down processing
Teaching listening #6 – Listening as Acquisition
Teaching listening #7 – Implications