Evaluating Listening Theory: Development and Illustration of Five Criteria

Scholars have lamented the lack of focus on theory-driven listening research for several decades. Unfortunately, these discussions have made little headway toward making listening research more grounded in theory. This article argues that one reason for the lack of focus on developing and testing listening theory is that listening researchers may not fully understand the nature and necessity of theory. Thus, a working definition for theory is proposed and a set of criteria that can be used to evaluate social scientific theories of listening is deduced. These criteria are then used to evaluate two listening theories. The article concludes by illustrating how these criteria can be used to inform the development of new listening theory.