TEACHING LISTENING COMPREHENSION: An Interim Report on a Project to Use Uncontrolled Language Data as a Source Material for Training Foreign Students in Listening Comprehension.

The report starts with a brief statement of some of the factors that account for students' failure to comprehend everyday spoken language. It will be suggested that our presentation of language to the student, during the teaching process, may be a misleading presentation if compared with language as it is actually spoken in everyday situations. We will propose that pace of delivery is one feature of everyday language which is an obvious but ignored barrier to comprehension, and does itself contain some aspect of the message. The effect of pace of delivery on the sound system and its implications for presenting uncontrolled language in pedagogic materials will be considered. The report will conclude by noting the need for a fuller taxonomy of the spoken language.