This article aims to review the changes in teaching procedures for practicing listening in a foreign language. Listening as a distinct skill has come to the limelight rather recently, only about 30 years ago.
　At first the teaching procedure was very simple: Presenting spoken language and testing the contents. Now it has become more sophisticated: Giving key words, expressions, background knowledge, etc., to let the learners grasp the outline of the spoken language easily, after which they are led to go into the details. Key words and expressions may be exploited further. First comes the understanding of the contents and then the exploitation of the language used in the spoken passage or dialogue.