Abstract
Foreign learners of English often find listening to English more difficult than reading it. This paper reports an experiment conducted to analyze this comprehension gap between listening and reading for Japanese learners of English. It has been found that the learners can understand about twice as much English in reading as in listening. It has also been found that the gap between listening and reading tends to increase as the learners advance in their learning. Furthermore, it has been found that the gap is greater among slow learners than among good learners. Several implications for English language teaching in Japan are presented at the end.
