Six practical components of listening comprehension and sources of listening materials are considered. Listening comprehension depends on: (1) the sonic realization or actual physical hearing of language, (2) the segmental/suprasegmental form (phoneme distinction), (3) the musical pitch and rhythm, (4) lexical phrasing, (5) the purpose of the message intended by the speaker, and (6) the actualization of the message in the listener. Sources of good listening material, listed in order of importance, are: the teacher; other speakers of the target language; recordings of radio broadcasts, music, speeches; films and television programs; and commercially-produced language laboratory tapes. The importance of frequently exposing students to the language as it is actually used by fluent speakers is emphasized. The technique of adapting materials from the radio is illustrated by a weather report in German. Fifteen weather reports were recorded, since they are usually in a fixed format, with certain kinds of information in certain locations. Certain words and phrases were deleted from one report to the next, and three of the reports were not transcribed for the students, who were required to provide the basic information about the weather. It is suggested that the same technique can be used for other types of short abridged language material, especially music. Some limitations of commercially-produced tapes are noted. (SW)