Abstract:

Listening skill in foreign language (L2) learning seems to be one of the under-researched areas due to the difficulty with determining the exact problem with listening, on the one hand, and a notion shared by many researchers as well as teachers that to learn listening one just has to have a regular extensive listening practice. The situation is gradually changing with more researchers involved in studying listening abilities in L2 learning. However, further research is necessary to understand different mechanisms contributing to successful listening. This article overviews the current state of research with an attempt to structure the studies into the areas such as, phonological problems (for example, sounds, intonation, distinguishing word-boundaries), language problems (for example, grammar, vocabulary and syntax issues), cognitive problems (for example, working memory, understanding instructions, predicting the content based on high frequency words), psychological issues (for example, anxiety, motivation) and other (for example, socio-educational status, metacognitive knowledge, first language, general literacy level in L1). The article determines more areas for further research in the field from the perspective of interrelation between cognitive mechanisms such as internal translation, the speed of speech delivery, the speed of processing the perceived listening input and successful listening in L2.

Keywords:

Listening, L2, foreign language learning, phonological problems.