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This article presents strategies for reading visual images. It illustrates how visual systems inform the process of listening for the meaning of foreign language words and phrases.' We propose that the ability to read picture sequences as meaningful systems constitutes an important "visual literacy" that is essential for verbal comprehension of videos: An ability to recognize that visual images-such as what the camera focuses on, how much or how little is shown, and which people or objects are visually dominant or subordinate to otherssuggest a pattern of values. Identifying values implied by these pictorial messages, we propose, helps students recognize how pictorial messages are underscored and elaborated in a video's spoken language. For this undertaking, we first briefly review key research and pedagogy in the field and then present an exercise sequence for video use that proceeds from visual to verbal systems appropriate for beginning language instruction. In conclusion, we suggest ways in which our strategies apply to a larger curricular program that integrates media in its overall learning objectives. AN OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE LISTENING COMPREHENSION AND VIDEO VIEWINGMost foreign language (FL) teachers acknowledge that videos expose students to authentic materials and to voices, dialects, and registers other than the teacher's and provide cultural contexts for that FL (Berwald, 1985;

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A NUMBER OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL developments and pressures seem to be building up in ways that challenge college foreign language (FL) departments to (re)consider the place of FL study in educational decision making. Central questions about the role of FLs in higher education and the educational purposes, goals, and outcomes of FL study are being revisited. In our conceptual space, several constructs have solidified to guide that critical examination. Among them are terms like accountability and assessment, accreditation and certification requirements, curriculum reform and program articulation, heritage language learning and multilingual literacy, program goals and outcomes, social responsiveness and security needs, and local and national standards. In their breadth and depth, they point to key areas where we need to focus our attention and engage in spirited discussion.Perspectives will contribute to the discussion in two stages. In this issue of the MLJ , the focus is on the link between educational goals of FL study and the dominant professional metaphors that have guided our thinking and our pedagogies. In Perspectives, MLJ, 90 (4), the focus will turn to how collegiate FL programs specify the learning outcomes they intend for their students at different turning points in their programs, how they assess outcomes, and how they evaluate their programs' ability to achieve congruence among these diverse areas and, as necessary, fine-tune their educational actions.