A formal evaluation of students listening abilities is crucial in order that language teacher's can meet the pedagogical needs of their students. While there has been a considerable body of work done on assessing the listening abilities of native speakers, the issues surrounding the assessment of second language learners listening abilities are still emerging. This book outlines in an accessible manner the theory and research relating to the listening ability of foreign language learners. It provides language teachers with guidelines to design and develop suitable listening tasks for their students.