Cognitive insights into first and second language listening

[FT]This chapter explores current cognitively informed approaches to the listening skill in terms of two main areas: (1) the nature of the signal that any listener (L1 or L2) has to decode, and (2) the precise nature of the skill that the L1 listener commands and the L2 listener has to acquire. The chapter reviews the variability of speech at the phonetic, lexical, and speaker level, and then provides a cognitive account of the listening skill, and of how listeners make sense of the speech signal, as well as the higher-level processes involved in meaning construction. It then goes on to consider ways in which an L2 user might be helped to respond to the cognitive challenges associated with listening.