When students go to a lecture, they may already have some background knowledge of the subject and be able to predict a little of the content of the lecture, not least from its title. However, it is at this point that problems may develop. James (1977) summarises the main problems, within three broad areas:

1. decoding, i.e. recognising what has been said;

2. comprehending, i.e. understanding the main and subsidiary points;

3. taking notes, i.e. writing down quickly, briefly and clearly the important points for future use.

Expanding a little on these areas, we may see that the act of decoding involves not only recognising unit boundaries phonologically, but also the recognition of ‘irregular pausing, false starts, hesitations, stress and intonation patterns’ (Flowerdew 1994). The problem will be exacerbated for NNS who lack familiarity with spoken discourse structure, various styles of delivery and the accent and speed of speaking of the lecturer. Students may be inexperienced in listening to fluent, native-speaker spoken English together with its colloquialisms and idiomatic expressions, apart from probable difficulties caused by the use of weak forms and contractions. Comprehension difficulties may be compounded by insufficient knowledge of the specialist subject.

The lecture genre itself (discussed in Benson 1994) brings its own particular and potential areas of difficulty. Especially problematic is: