Listening Strategies and Environment

Sari Rahmawati, 1306415945

Language is a bridge for making the communication become effective because
there will be no communication without language. Language has four language skills,
there are listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills that will help you to learn
new language or lesson in this life. Listening as the first skill that mentioned, has an
important role in learning process. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary,
listening is an activity that performed by paying attention to someone or something in
order to hear what is being said, sung, played, etc. Why can listening be so important
in learning process? Because the first thing you can do when you were infant was
listening. Because of listening, you can speak what you have listen. After speaking, it
means you have a capacity to read and then write what you have read. So, it can be
concluded that listening is the main step to learn a language and used to understand
what is being said.
The California State Polytechnic University stated some point to guide you to
become a better listener. The first point is look, if you listen to a direct presentation it
is better to see how the lecturer deliver his or her presentation. This is necessary
because it can improve your understanding. Second, it is important to identify your
motive in listening, so you will give your maximum attention to it. After your motive
has cleared, it is your time to set up your environment to conducive condition that
support you to gain understanding from the listening. Fourth, improve your attention
and dont let something distract you from the listening text or speaker. Assume that
everything has settled, the most important thing is examining the context to determine
the main point. Action verb and other specific detail will help you find it and
understand what are being said.
When you have already known the steps to make you a better listener, there
are some kind of listening strategies to help you become a better and better listener.
Listening strategies are techniques that help you process the text while listening. In
listening, there are top-down strategy and bottom-up strategy. Top-down strategy is a
strategy of listening that require background of your knowledge to help you
understand the message (Richards, 2008). This knowledge support the listeners to
understand what is being said by combining them (knowledge and listening text). In

top-down strategy, you can listen and then find the main idea with your previous
knowledge. By using knowledge, you have an ability to predict what will happen
next in listening text. Predicting makes you easy to draw or make some summary or
conclusion about the listening text.
On the other hand, bottom-up strategy is a strategy that use clues only from
the text to understand new information. In this case, you have to break some sentences
into chunk or word that you understand. This will help you to understand the listening
text from what you remember, not in the form you heard them. But not only the
words, sounds and grammar include intonation and pausing actually create meaning
and understanding. In bottom-up strategy, you usually listen for details that specific,
recognizing cognates, and recognizing word-order pattern.
Both top-down and bottom-up strategy can help you improve your listening
skill and understand what is being said easier. If you have already known about those
strategies, it is better to apply it in your listening activity. But it is also necessary to
support those strategies with a conducive environment to make you become a better
listener.

REFERENCES
Richards, J., C. (2008) Teaching Listening and Speaking: From Theory to Practice.
New York: Cambridge University Press
Amri, I., A. (n. d.). Listening Strategies Used by Language Learners. Retrieved from:
http://marvin.ibeu.org.br/ibeudigital/images/3/35/Ibtesam_on_listening.pdf
(April, 19th 2014)
Yuensheng, C., and Minrui, L. (2013). A Study on Asynchronous Listening. Retrieved
from:

http://www.studymode.com/essays/a-Study-On-Asynchronous-Listening-

38817028.html (April, 20th 2014)