The Importance of Listening in Language Learning and Listening Comprehension Problems Experienced by Language Learners: a Literature Review

Listening has an important role both in daily life and in academic contexts as it is crucial for people to sustain effective communication. In spite of the importance of listening in the development of the communicative and cognitive skills, it did not start to take its place in language teaching curriculum for long years. However, in recent years, with the emphasis given in communication in language teaching, listening started to take its long deserved place in language programs. Although there are different perspectives to teaching listening, the success of each perspective somewhat depends on addressing and minimizing the listening comprehension problems experienced by language learners. This literature review aims to review the basic concepts related to the place and importance of listening skill in learning English as second or foreign language, and, in the light of the related literature, it focuses on listening comprehension problems experienced by second and foreign language learners.