The listeners begin to process what they are hearing by making judments and applying rules to find a thread of meaning as quickly as possible. Isolated words are combined to form ideas and these ideas are retained and combined into an understanding of the message. Readers predict the writer's message on the basis of syntactic information and their growing sense of the meaning. They search their memories for language cues and related background experience and choose an interpretation of the text which is then tested for conformity to their ideas of what is possible and sensible. While listening and reading, the two principles modes of receptive language, have much in common, there are factors which influence the relative strength of the listener and the visual reader.
Younger students have greater success with listening, as a rule.
When readers' initial steps ofdecoding and word recognition are not at an automatic level they do not have easy access to the meaning of the text and will prefer listening. With older students, particularly when given complex material, independent visual reading is usually the preferred and more successful mode. This apparently is related to the opportunity to choose one's own effective rate and to reread as needed. For the listener, without the opportunity to glance back at the text, working memory is crucial. The concentration and and discipline required is, therefore, greater in listening comprehension and must be practiced.