This chapter proposes a cognitive view of lecture comprehension instruction which includes use of” on-line” listener reports. The chapter first illustrates a method for accessing listener comprehension processes during lectures, and reports on a study in which a videotaped lecture was presented to 36 non-native speaker (NNS) subjects in a university preparation program. Summaries were elicited” on-line”-at pauses during the lecture. The summaries were analyzed by comparing them with ones written by expert native speaker (NS) listeners in order to assess comprehensibility of the lecture segments and to identify a range of strategies in lecture understanding. The chapter suggests pedagogic applications which incorporate the use of summaries.
