What two decades of research into L2 listening in System tells us: Looking back for looking forward

Although L2 listening is often deemed as the least researched skill because of the covert cognitive processes it entails and the rapidly transient nature of running speech, System has given adequate attention to this particular research area over the past four decades. Since Nord (1980) published the Journal's very first article on L2 listening to advocate for a paradigm shift to listening as the focal skill of language instruction, there had been a steady upward trend in the number of relevant studies published in System and such ardent interest led to the launch of the 2008 Special Issue on Listening. Given the expanse of the relevant literature, in this Special Virtual Issue, we narrow our focus by bringing to the fore research articles on L2 listening that have appeared in System since the arrival of the new millennium, spanning two decades. Adopting a qualitative synthetic approach with thematic analysis, we summarize the overall trends of L2 listening research in the Journal, review the selected articles within a thematic framework with reference to Vandergrift's (2007) narrative review, and conclude with a general discussion on what needs to be explored further.