The chapters in this book have taught us a lot about academic lectures and about the processes which are involved in their comprehension by L2 listeners. This final chapter has five objectives:

1. To summarise briefly what the individual chapters in the collection have taught us in terms of research findings;

2. To highlight the conclusions for pedagogy that the individual chapters provide for;

3. To highlight generalizations which can be made springing from the collection as a whole, both for research and pedagogy

4. To examine the question of the generalizability of the findings of the individual chapters;

5. To highlight the most important areas where there is still a lot to be learned about L2 academic listening and where further research is thus most urgently needed.

What research findings have the individual contributions to the collection provided?

The chapters in this collection have individually provided a wide range of research findings. Very briefly, findings have been presented as follows:

About the L2 academic listening comprehension process

1. - the negative effect of an unfamiliar discourse structure on lecture comprehension (Tauroza and Allison);

2. - the role (or non-role) of discourse markers in facilitating comprehension (Dunkel and Davis);

3. - the role of note-keeping as an aid in the recall of information presented in lectures (Chaudron, Loschky and Cook);

4. - the listening comprehension strategies and problems of L2 students as manifested in elicited, “on-line” written summaries (Rost).