Explores the hypothesis that speakers formulate their requests to anticipate the potential obstacles (ability, willingness, possession of the object desired, etc.) which hinder addressees in complying with requests and that the comprehension of these requests depends on how well speakers formulate them. (SED)

Recent developments in cognitive science are assessed as challenge to well established view in philosophy of linguistics that meaning is inherent to language and is relatively fixed. Information provided by words and sentences, language comprehension, constructions of interpretations (not meanings), and arguments against relativism are discussed.…

Discusses the drawbacks of using the ACTFL-ETS Provisional Proficiency Guidelines in a university foreign language department. Recommends that reading skill should be measured by depth of understanding and perhaps speed rather than by the kind and number of specific elements of language the reader has failed to "understand." (SED)

Using "image" as a central concept, offers an interpretation of the similarities and differences between oral and written comprehension based on studies of both the associative and the generative properties of human memory. The practical consequences of this interpretation on second language teaching are listed. (SED)

Outlines strategies for teaching listening comprehension which can be adapted to foreign language programs. The initial stage is to make the students aware of the skill of listening for comprehension. Then follows strategies that demand purposeful reactions from the students, including instruction activities, command activities, personal-choice…

Maintains that massive amounts of authentic input is the only way to approach listening comprehension in a foreign language classroom. Suggests listening exercises designed to enhance students' expectancy and to teach them to extract high-information items from a natural and redundant environment. (SED)

Discusses the practical aspects of listening comprehension exercises, focusing on sources for material such as: the teachers; other speakers; recordings of radio broadcasts, music, speeches, etc.; films and television programs; and commercially produced language lab films. (EKN)

A number of phenomena in speech perception have been called fusion, but little effort has been made to compare these phenomena in a systematic fashion. This paper examines six of them. (Editor/RK)

This article describes an experiment conducted at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Romance Languages with first-year students. It was concluded that the language laboratory could best be employed to improve aural comprehension and to permit a more direct approach to contemporary French civilization. (Text is in French.) (Author/POP)

Auditory information processing, or listening in oral discourse, can be carried out in various ways since its underlying goals are not per se clearly defined and depend on the listening context. A strategy is a global representation of the means of reaching a goal. The concern of the current study was placed on the strategy level rather than on…

Results of this study suggest that some use of the type of the listening used in this study would be appropriate for teaching discriminative listening in the general music curriculum. (Author)

Specific proposals for improving listening skills. (CH)

Describes a program geared to helping children learn to attach the verbal symbol to its particular motoric response so the child will know specifically what to do under a given verbal instruction. (TO)