Relationship between L1 and L2 listening skills

Ewa Cofalik, 24.04.2002

Which of the three views of the relationship between L1 and L2 listening skills is most appropriate? What evidence do you have, also from your experience as an L2 learner/ teacher?

Any language contains a number of symbols formed in a system. All the existing symbols that can be found in the language, when appropriately arranged, function as a code used to represent certain cognitive designates that have been noticed by people in the reality that surrounds them. These symbols are of different nature: some of them possess audible features – these are called sounds; some other are printed marks – they bear the name of letters; still other are commonly accepted signs – these belong to the body language and are normally used to complement or represent the sounds. All the symbols are necessary to describe the world in which people function. And all of them are used to construct the messages concerning the reality human beings are continuously confronted with.
Remembering about everything that has been written above, it seems necessary not to forget about the very nature of language as such (i.e. the roots that resulted in its birth). As any existing language must have its own (individual) heritage, it seems obvious it comprises only these symbols which have been agreed upon by its native users. It appears then that when one wishes to learn a language different from one’s native language (normally called L2 for short), one has to get accustomed to all these symbols (as well as their configurations) that have been formed – and generally accepted – by L2 native users.
While getting accustomed to the signs (and the codifications of the mental designates that normally function in the language) one has to find out how to listen to all the messages transmitted orally as well. In other words, one has to master the skill of listening.
Anybody who has ever tried to listen to a foreign text (be it English, German, or spoken in a Swahili dialect), should agree with the following observation: the text comprises the words/expressions one is a little bit more familiar with alongside the words/expressions one has assessed as totally strange and/or even bizarre. Regrettably, the second of the two groups usually far outnumbers the first one.
At first one seems to experience a feeling of being lost. The problems dealing with the appropriate ...