A promising way to enhance student listening performance with recorded materials is to mechanically retard or advance the speed of the tape and electronically correct the accompanying shift in pitch. With a speech compressor/expander, the language laboratory can eliminate the negative psychological effects of too much speed. Beginning students especially benefit from the application of rate-alteration technology to lab programs. Student motivation is increased because the increase in comprehensibility is not at the expense of native quality of speech. Although second language learners come to the language lab with differing abilities and learning styles, all proceed through stages of listening comprehension from no comprehension in a stream of sound to eventual extended speech recognition. A proper sequencing of listening activities, providing an individualized curriculum design for field-dependent listeners, can be successfully combined with speech compression/expansion to systematically reinforce the student's confidence in his/her ability to comprehend native speech. (SW)