Many students have significant problems with listening. The speed of utterances, the reduced forms of natural English, the use of intonation for meaning, and unfamiliar accents, all take their toll and it is essential to give learners at all levels plenty of practice.

For the last ten years ELT Journal has been publishing a feature called Key Concepts in ELT. The aim of the feature is to give readers a brief overview of a current topic in ELT and to suggest further reading to follow up some of the ideas presented.