Listening, multimedia and optimum design

Abstract

Listening is “…a term used in language studies and language education to refer … to a set of cognitive interactions involved in oral language processing” (Rost, 1994, p. 3778). It is also added that listening is “... the process of deriving meaning from sound” (ibid). The Chambers Encyclopaedic English Dictionary (CEED) defines listening as “to give attention so as to hear something to follow advice”. Moreover, Vanderplank (1988, p. 32) says: “… listening can be seen as … following and understanding…. Following … is closely connected with the intelligibility of a message. That is, can a listener repeat the message aloud, sub-vocally, or in the mind’s eye?” Furthermore, Bacon (1992, p. 388) says: “the act of listening involves an interaction of input, task, and individual variables”. As seen, there are different definitions of ‘listening’. All these definitions provide us with some key features. These are: ‘a set of cognitive interactions in processing’; ‘the process of deriving meaning from sound’; ‘giving attention’; ‘following, understanding and repeating/producing’; ‘the interaction of input, task and individual variables’. However, everything is not yet crystal-clear. Therefore, this term needs to be discussed more. Then, what does listening mean? Is it a term related to only language studies? Is it always a process of deriving meaning from sound? Is it always a process of following only advice? To answer these questions correctly, firstly a comparison should be made, to some extent, between first language (L1) and second language (L2) listening. Inevitably, there are many -similarities in L1 and L2 listening such as following speech, trying to understand it, and, in some cases, answering. Apart from these similarities, there are some more aspects of foreign/second language (FL/SL) listening, not all of which are indicated clearly in the above definitions. Such features can vary depending on (a) the characteristics of language learners, (b) the characteristics of listening input, (c) listening purposes and (d) learning objectives. Language