ABSTRACT
As we have outlined in the previous chapters, the listener has access to multiple layers of information in the speech signal. In order to make use of this information, the listener needs to access multiple interconnections in memory when listening. Effective listening involves making use of available information in the speech signal and activating these cognitive resources. However, there is more to listening than linguistic decoding and semantic processing. There is an additional, overarching component which we will call pragmatic competence. This competence is essential to the social dimension of listening, including pragmatic comprehension (Kasper, 2006; Taguchi, 2009), interactional competence (Hymes, 2001), and symbolic competence (Kramsch and Whiteside, 2008). Discourse analysis, as a branch of pragmatics, is concerned with the ways listeners make use of linguistic information and background knowledge as they listen in a social
context. The ability to understand another speaker’s intended meaning, in context, can be considered a primary goal of listening and a primary objective in learning to listen in an L2.
