Listening comprehension exercises in second language instruction are expected to: (1) increase students' efficiency at message extraction, and (2) lead to assimilation of new vocabulary and expressions. Data from a small experiment using such exercises illustrate the distinctions drawn and the limitations. (CHK)

This study investigates the phenomenon that listeners of English were surprisingly accurate at predicting the temporal end of a sentence when only given the part up to the "potentially last word," that is a noun before an optional prepositional phrase of varying lengths. Results of four experiments using either French or English are given. (35…

Discusses "cued shadowing," during which subjects listen to pairs of words or sentences and repeat a target word signalled by a cue. Rapid semantic and grammatical priming effects have been observed with this technique, both with word and sentence contexts and at different positions within sentence contexts, in normal children and adults, and in…

Examined the effect of the gender of the speaker and listener on second language listening comprehension. Iranian English-as-a-Foreign-language students listened to four short passages and answered some multiple-choice questions. Results clearly indicate that only the gender of the speaker had an influence on foreign language listening…

Discusses three experiments conducted to examine the effects of three types of elaboration--marked paraphrase, unmarked paraphrase, and unnecessary detail--on the listening comprehension of nonnative speakers. Findings indicate that the quality of elaboration has implications for listening comprehension in both the classroom and the workplace. (36…

Examined whether 30-month olds appreciate that their communicative signals are being understood by another. Separated listener comprehension from obtaining a material goal in communication. Children clarified their signal more when the experimenter misunderstood compared with when she understood. Regardless of achieving overt goal, children…

Current methodologies of foreign language instruction have, for different reasons, proven to be lacking. This article makes a plea for computer-supported instruction that can efficiently take over purely cognitive and mechanical tasks (pronunciation and listening comprehension exercises, grammar and reading lessons). Difficulties that hinder…

Discusses the hypothesis predicting that losses in a speaker's content and relational listening abilities associated with presbycusis will have significant actor effects on a speaker's own conversational behavior such that he will exhibit decreased aligning actions, decreased relational dynamism, and decreased verbal immediacy. (24 references) (CK)

Examined the extent to which native-English speaking and English-as-a-Second-Language listeners performed better on a test when the speaker shared their native language. Four groups of listeners with different native languages heard lectures presented in English by speakers of different native languages. Both native and nonnative listeners scored…

This partial replication of an earlier study that found second language (L2) learners of Spanish have trouble simultaneously attending to meaning and form of aural input addresses the effect of modality on attention to meaning and form by including a written mode and using English as a Second Language. Revealed listening was more difficult than…

This article reviews research studies on the efficacy of cochlear implants for children's auditory communication skills, including speech perception, speech production, and language. It offers suggestions for building auditory skill development in children with cochlear implants. Four classic levels of auditory skill development (awareness,…

Investigates how effectively multimedia learning environments can assist second language (L2) students in the process of listening comprehension. Looks specifically at how written and pictorial annotations can aid learners in the acquisition of new vocabulary and in comprehension when they listen to an aural L2 passage. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the task of finding appropriate materials for the beginning levels of language instruction, and presents a cogent rationale for employing a combination of authentic materials and on-campus production that, together, closely follow and reinforce the course syllabus. (Author/OD)

Fourteen non-native speaking graduate and undergraduate students watched an authentic 16-minute videotaped engineering lecture and were asked to provide immediate recall summaries. It is concluded that students should be taught to listen to lectures in a more rhetorical and strategic way.(Author/VWL)