THE EFFECT OF TOP-DOWN AND BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING ON DEVELOPING EFL STUDENTS’ LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Abstract

language performance of the foreign language learners whether they are communicating at school, at work, or in the community (Van Duzer, 1997:1). According to Nancy and Bruce (1988:1) listening is the first language mode that children acquire. It provides a foundation for all aspects of language and cognitive development, and it plays a life-long role in the processing of learning and communication essential to productive participation in life.<br /> Lynch and Mendelsohn (2002: 193) assure that traditionally listening was viewed as a passive process in which our ears just received information and the listener passively registered the message. Today listening is considered as an active process, and good listeners are just as active when listening as speakers are when speaking. They (ibid.) assert that listening is not a single process, but it is more accurate to conceive of it as a bundle of related processes- recognition of the sounds uttered by the speaker, perception of intonation patterns showing information focus, interpretation of the relevance of what is being said to the current topic <br />