The Listening Comprehension Exercise Network WEN): A Nationally Available Aid to the Development of Listening Proficiency in Russian¹

Abstract

Satellite access to foreign broadcasts opens an exciting era in learning to understand authentic foreign language by providing students with a culturally real context, extralinguistic cues and a pictorially accurate portrayal of everyday lqe. But teaching listening comprehension skills requires more than immersing students in foreign television programming. Preparation of exercises to accompany broadcasts, many of which become almost immediately dated, requires much time. As more universities obtain satellite technology and interest in teaching listening comprehension grows, the need increases for a systematic way to enhance students' listening skills and for a more efficacious means of exploiting this new technology. This paper describes a system, developed at the George Washington University and the Foreign Service Institute that shares listening exercises in Russian via national computer networks. This system alleviates the problem of time spent to develop essentially “throw‐away” exercises. Currently available only in Russian, the LCEN can be emulated in other languages.