Discusses some problems in the rating of achievement in auditory understanding, as well as types of exercises for the teaching of English in general and for specific professions. (IFS/WGA)

Presents arguments for and against: the theoretical acceptance of language skills breakdown; the Unitary Competence Hypothesis/General Language Proficiency theory; and the existence of a separate listening comprehension factor in language ability. Also considered is the technique of factor analysis in language research. (CB)

Investigates the relationship between employee productivity with new technology and listening ability. Data entry employees from two divisions of a large corporation were given a standardized test to assess their listening ability. Results reveal that employees who received listening training performed at significantly higher levels than those who…

Demonstrates the difficulty that English-as-a-second-language students experience in comprehending academic lectures, explores the lexical phrases that occur in several representative academic lectures and categorizes them in terms of the discourse functions they perform, and suggests ways of teaching such lexical phrases and functional categories…

A Confidence-rating scale accompanying answers on a listening test helps distinguish between learners who select answers based on effective self-monitoring and those whose answers are based on poor self-monitoring. The latter are more likely to do so subsequently as well. Test items and a rating scale are illustrated. (Author/LMO)

Attempts to distinguish the role of the structure of a message in determining the different modalities of decodification and memorization in oral discourse based on the theories and experiments of Ragnar Rommetveit of the Oslo School. (CFM)

Outlines the format for a course dedicated exclusively to the teaching of listening skills at the intermediate and advanced second language instruction levels. Suggestions are made regarding instructional materials, testing, grading, assignments, class interaction, and organization. (Author/CB)

Presents and discusses results of study on the specific linguistics needs of Italian scientists who must use English for science and technology for study and work purposes. Writing and listening were considered to be the most difficult skills to master. Questionnaire appears in Appendix. (LMO)

Investigates the effects of reading a series-format, many-volumed story to disadvantaged first graders. Results indicate that children who had been read to outscored children in the control classes on measures of decoding, reading comprehension, and active use of language. (SRT)

Describes four experiments on the speech segmentation procedures of English listeners listening to English words and compares them to earlier work based on French speakers listening to French words. The results indicate that the segmentation process characteristically employed by French speakers and English speakers differs. (SED)

Examines the listening process and delineates some of the strategies used by listeners to extract meaning from spoken input. The importance of listening comprehension development in second language acquisition is discussed, as are types of activities and listening materials which can be used to foster development of listening comprehension. (SED)

The role of syntactic/semantic structure in the motor programing of speech by five-year-olds, eight-year-olds, and adults was investigated. Repetition durations were found to be shorter for simple than for complex sentences at all ages. However, linguistic complexity affected durational variability only for adults. (Author/SED)

Describes a study which investigated the effect of training in nonverbal and verbal cue identification on notetaking and listening comprehension by 100 Chinese graduate students. The paper also provides a model for future materials development, teaching methodology, testing, and research in this area. (Author/SED)

Describes the results of a remedial program provided to an adult subject who had incurred aphasia and alexia as a result of a series of strokes. (FL)

Suggests that the activity of retelling a story in a second language reveals a student's knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and sense of story. Describes a story-telling activity with students in Spanish, levels three-five, and notes a strong relationship between language proficiency and years of study. (SED)