Discusses the usefulness of the speech expander and the speech compressor in second language instruction, particularly as concerns the development of listening comprehension skills. (AM)

The article reviews the literature on listening as an effective learning skill for the visually handicapped, and suggests ways of helping visually handicapped students to improve their listening skills. (Author/DLS)

Demonstrates how recordings of radio programs can be used in the French classroom for listening comprehension and writing skill development. (AM)

This article discusses how a language laboratory can be used effectively in an English as a second language/English as a foreign language program. The lab should be used primarily for listening comprehension, not for drill and repetition. (CFM)

Summarizes the use of word-spotting in psycholinguistic research. Notes that listeners hear a list of nonsense words, some of which contain embedded real words, and they detect those embedded words, a task designed to study the segmentation of continuous speech. Describes the task and summarizes its advantages and disadvantages. (12 references)…

This study evaluated an assessment procedure designed to assess speech recognition ability in individuals with mild-to-moderate hearing losses. Sets of phonetic contrasts were presented within sentence contexts to 53 listeners (31 hearing impaired) in four listening conditions. The procedure distinguished between normal and hearing impaired…

Presents a study of the acquisition of English-as-a-Foreign-Language vocabulary through academic listening. Explored the effects of EFL proficiency and lecture comprehension on vocabulary acquisition as well as the relationship between vocabulary gain and the following factors: frequency of occurrence, types of word, type of word elaboration, and…

Investigated the effects of frequent dictation on the listening comprehension ability of elementary English-as-a-Foreign-Language learners. Subjects were two homogenous groups of elementary EFL students at the Kish Language Institute in Tehran, Iran. Results showed dictation had a significant effect on the listening comprehension ability of the…

Beginning level French students in Grades 4-6 completed listening comprehension tasks and reflective exercises using instruments that engaged them in prediction, evaluation, and other processes involved in listening. Results suggest that use of these instruments helped sensitize students to the processes underlying second language listening…

Fifteen listeners using the Listener Comfort Scale rated videos of 10 adults before and after stuttering treatment and videos of 10 controls. Results were compared with those of 15 listeners who used the Speech Naturalness Scale. Reliability of the Speech Naturalness Scale was superior; however, the Listener Comfort Scale captured different…

Adding German subtitles to German videos that are specifically aimed at aural comprehension development assists learners in acquiring new vocabulary and developing listening comprehension, and also facilitates the transition from reading to comprehending the spoken language. (Author/CB)

Five experiments examined the extent and nature of the referential source errors of 5- to 10-year-old children who listened to stories containing a referential utterance. The results supported five conclusions about children's confusion of different sources of information in referential communication. (SW)

Over the past decade, Brigham Young University has developed many interactive videodisc programs for personalized foreign language instruction, from early prototypal projects to current HyperCard and Toolbook packages. A broad description of the different models, their variations, and their implementation is provided. (Contains seven references.)…

This case study examined the development of language skills in a bonobo and a chimpanzee raised by human caregivers since infancy, focusing on the primates' ability to comprehend simple speech, understand referential symbol use, and engage in intentionally communicative routines. It is argued that comparative results from these primates can…