A study investigated the effectiveness of structured viewing of television news on listening comprehension in English as a Second Language (ESL), as compared with the effectiveness of standard listening comprehension materials. Subjects were 66 students aged 18-22 in diverse disciplines, 34 in the experimental group and 32 in a control group. Listening proficiency was pre-tested and post-tested using two standardized tests. The experimental group was taught, in part, using recordings of television news and related worksheets and vocabulary lists. The control group was taught using several sets of commercial listening comprehension materials. Both groups were also surveyed concerning their perceptions of general course activities and listening instruction. Results indicate both groups made significant progress in development of listening skills, with the experimental group making more progress, although statistically non-significant, than the control group. A greater range of effect was found in the control group. However, the experimental group reported both more interest in the listening materials used and greater feeling of improvement than did the control group, suggesting that use of television news recordings had a positive influence on student motivation. Materials used in testing, instruction, and the survey are appended. (MSE)