The skill of listening is complex and multifaceted. In order to describe the process of aural comprehension, two interconnected perspectives have been adopted: a bottom‐up perspective and a top‐down one. This entry discusses whether bottom‐up and top‐down listening strategies deserve attention in the TESOL classroom and suggests practical methods for incorporating them into listening lessons. The entry begins by considering the theoretical underpinnings of these two perspectives, with a view to exploring the discrete stages that listeners undergo in order to make sense of what they hear. It then moves on to describe how top‐down and bottom‐up strategies can be implemented in pre‐listening, listening, and post‐listening lesson stages.