The purpose of this study was to determine the effect that systematic training in purposive listening has on seventh-grade pupils. Ninety subjects were randomly selected and assigned to three groups: an experimental group which received purposive listening treatment, an isolated-control group which received instruction in literature study with no systematic attention given to listening skills, and a control group. Listening ability was measured by the "Sequential Tests of Educational Progress" Listening Section (Form A for the pre-test and Form 3B for the post-test). Pre- and post-test means as well as gain score means were compared by a one-way design of the analysis of variance technique to determine whether the differences among the groups were statistically significant. The"Duncan's New Multiple Range Test," which tested for significance of differences between all possible pairs of means, was also applied if the obtained F-ratio were significant. Findings indicated that purposive listening instruction produced significant measured improvement in the listening ability of seventh-graders. (Author/JS)