ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introductory discussion of the role of listening in verbal communication. To explore the issue of understanding in verbal interaction it is necessary to outline the nature of content in language and the nature of roles of the interlocutors. Many of these transfer-of-information metaphors are rooted in the rationalist tradition in philosophy, the philosophy which gave rise to information processing theory. An important aspect of relevance theory, and a fundamental departure from the information-processing view of communication, is that successful ostensive-inferential communication cannot be guaranteed. Relevance theory offers a useful backdrop for a discussion of listening in language education, but we also need a model of the use of the linguistic and pragmatic competence that underlie successful communication. Psycholinguistic studies of reading have indirectly shown key differences between reading and listening. The notion of listening is often paralleled to reading, in which there are texts with which readers interact.
