Speech perception research has commonly relied on untrained listeners to provide impressionistic judgments of second language (L2) speech, and training listeners has been rare. The current study therefore explores the implications of training novice listeners (NLs) to rate accented speech. A total of 60 listeners were recruited, 30 who remained…

An intensive Russian language program emphasized listening comprehension before developing reading and speaking skills. Task performance verified comprehension in early stages. Program results included minimizing task overloading, increased student motivation. (CHK)

Factors affecting student listening comprehension include those inherent - age, IQ, hearing ability, knowledge of the foreign language, memory - and those relating to material - content, complexity, length, use of visual clues. Suggestions are made for adapting text material to effective listening exercises. (CHK)

Investigated the effects of three aural-advance organizers on student comprehension of second-language (L2) videotaped materials. Subjects were 160 low-intermediate Chinese students of English in Taiwan. Suggests that in preparing advance organizers for English-as-a-Foreign-Language students, teachers should focus on new words rather than on video…

Since listening comprehension presupposes an orderly conversion of running speech into discrete linguistic units, certain restoration processes must apply. An approach is provided to explain the metamorphosis that language undergoes from dynamic speech representations to citation form strings, under listening conditions. Some performance…

This paper describes the various barriers to comprehension that learners may encounter when viewing feature films in a second language. Two clusters of interfacing factors that may contribute to comprehension hot spots emerged from a quantitative analysis of problems noted in student logbooks. One cluster had a strong acoustic basis, whereas the…

Dr. Simon Belasco's paper "Programmed Instruction and the Psychology of Second Language Learning" explores basic assumptions held by curriculum designers and teachers concerning the possibility of second language acquisition in an artificial, unicultural, and contrived classroom environment. Concepts relating to scope and sequence, New Key…

Special emphasis is placed on the potential of dialog learning in a discussion of a sequence of activities and materials appropriate for developing the recognition and selection levels of activity involved in listening to a foreign language. Also referred to are the (1) procedural features of presentation, (2) emotional problems possibly resulting…

Understanding spontaneous speech is a very difficult task for many foreign students. They must be taught to use all the ethnographic cues available to enable them to predict the likely content of a text. They must predict not only the factual content of spoken language but also the interactional structuring. (Author/CFM)