En la presente investigacion se determino los efectos del uso de las estrategias ascendentes y descendentes propuestas por Brown (2007) en la comprension auditiva de veintiocho estudiantes universitarios durante su proceso de aprendizaje en un programa de aprendizaje formal del idioma ingles como Lengua Extranjera (ILE). Para ello, se realizo un estudio cuasi-experimental el cual estuvo compuesto por un grupo control y un grupo experimental. Este ultimo grupo fue sometido a un entrenamiento pedagogico que tuvo una duracion aproximada de cinco semanas. Ambos grupos fueron sometidos a un pretest y un postest con el fin de determinar el nivel de comprension auditiva antes y despues de la realizacion de dicho entrenamiento. Para el analisis de los datos, se aplico la prueba t de student la cual arrojo una mejoria satisfactoria del nivel de comprension auditiva del grupo experimental. The listening comprehension of English as a foreign language of college students: effects of bottom up and top down strategies in a teaching program Abstract This study aimed to determine the effects of the use of the Bottom-up and Top-down listening strategies, proposed by Brown on the listening comprehension skills of twenty-eight undergraduate students during their process of learning in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) formal program. Thus, a quasi-experimental research which comprised a control and an experimental group was implemented. This last group of students was exposed to a five-week pedagogical training program. Both groups, control and experimental, were asked to take a pretest and a post test in order to determine their level of listening comprehension skill before and after the implementation of this training program. The data analysis was done through the application of a T student test. The results showed a significant improvement of the listening comprehension skills on the experimental group. Key words: listening comprehension; learning english as a foreign language; learning strategies.