Implementing Bottom-Up Listening Activities in a Basic French Course

Abstract

Listening skills are among the hardest to develop. Implementing Bottom-Up Listening (BUL) strategies I learned during a May 2025 DLIFLC workshop into the Basic French course, I collected students’ evaluation of the lessons’ usefulness. Into two lessons I incorporated three different BUL activities combined with a production task. Ultimately, this modest action research project found that students viewed these lessons positively. This report describes the context of the two lessons into which BUL activities were incorporated, the BUL activities themselves, and the introductory and production activities sandwiching them. Results of the action research are shared and discussed, highlighting potential factors that may have contributed to students’ high scoring of the lessons. Insights for replication of BUL activities by other instructors are shared. Ultimately, BUL activities may prove a powerful tool to sharpen students’ listening competencies, but may need supplementing with additional activities targeting comprehension, of which fellow instructors should take heed.