Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Background
- Part II Rethinking the comprehension approach
- Part III Process, not product
- Part IV A process view of listening
- 8 Input and context
- 9 Decoding and the inconsistent signal
- 10 Decoding: sounds, syllables and words
- 11 Using grammar and intonation
- 12 Amplifying what the speaker says
- 13 Handling information
- Part V The challenge of the real world
- Part VI Conclusion
- Appendices
- Glossary of listening-related terms
- References
- Index
- References
13 - Handling information
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Background
- Part II Rethinking the comprehension approach
- Part III Process, not product
- Part IV A process view of listening
- 8 Input and context
- 9 Decoding and the inconsistent signal
- 10 Decoding: sounds, syllables and words
- 11 Using grammar and intonation
- 12 Amplifying what the speaker says
- 13 Handling information
- Part V The challenge of the real world
- Part VI Conclusion
- Appendices
- Glossary of listening-related terms
- References
- Index
- References
Summary
Lok's ears spoke to Lok.”?” But Lok was asleep.
William Golding (1911–1993), British author, The InheritorsThe last chapter described how a listener constructs a deeper meaning representation from the bare message conveyed by the speaker's words. It was suggested that the meaning representation then contributes to a discourse representation, the listener's recall of everything that has been said so far. It does indeed, but the model shown in Chapter 12 was something of a simplification. Before the new piece of information is added to the discourse representation, it undergoes a certain amount of editing by the listener. The way in which it is handled and the way in which the representation is updated form the topic of the present chapter.
In dealing with incoming information, a listener is generally assumed to make a series of quite simple decisions. She has to decide:
How relevant is this piece of information?
How does it relate to what went before?
Is it consistent with what went before?
How does it fit into a hierarchy of other pieces obtained so far – some important, some less so?
Figure 13.1 (see p. 242) offers an expanded version of the model from Chapter 12, with these additional stages added. We will examine each of them in turn and consider how they are handled by an expert listener.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Listening in the Language Classroom , pp. 241 - 266Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009