Urges teachers to take time for intensive listening training for their students. Suggests eight activities to help produce more attentive students. (MS)

The comprehension of three systems of synthesized speech for computer screen output by 20 naive staff members at a Blind Rehabilitation Center was evaluated. The study found poor overall recognition performance on all the systems regardless of whether default or subject set parameters were used. (DB)

Children's ability to recall information and draw inferences from orally presented narratives was examined in sixteen nine- to ten-year-old language/learning (LLD) disabled children and two groups of normally developing children. The LLD children did not differ significantly from the younger aged control group. (Author/DB)

Discusses the formation of the International Listening Association to address concerns related to listening. The importance of teaching students effective listening skills is also outlined. New technology has increased the amount of listening in which students are engaged. Includes references. (MD)

Determines the test-retest reliability of dichotic listening procedures for assessing cerebral lateralization of receptive language in preschoolers.%x$OD)

Three experiments were designed to test preschool, first, and second graders' understanding of the term "word." A modified aural discrimination task required children to discriminate word from nonword stimuli. Results indicated that children's word concepts have been underestimated. (Author/BS)

Discusses the effects on native speaker comprehension of familiarity with: (1) topic, (2) nonnative speech in general, (3) a nonnative accent in particular, and (4) a particular nonnative. Results indicate that the most important variable is familiarity with topic, although the others all have a facilitating effect in comprehension. (EKN)

Critical listening is essential to the performer's development of interpretative freedom. Article considers the merits of learning to listen to the music one plays. (Author/RK)

Discusses the problems that arise when elementary school students try to read words that are common in their speech. (RB)

Discusses possible linguistic factors in children's misconceptions of words in the "Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, the "Lord's Prayer, and "America. (SW)