The sense of hearing has always played an important part in man's learning. Primitive man developed this sense extensively because his very existence depended upon accurate interpretation of nature's sounds. Man's own primitive sounds acquired meanings which his associates learned to listen for and to properly interpret. Man gradually developed a spoken language which was passed on to successive generations through the listening process.

Through thousands of years of the listening process, man advanced in his communicating techniques to the stage of symbolizing his sounds and their combinations as related to their meanings for him. Again, after long evolutionary periods of usage, permanently located people formed written languages. The advent of the printing press multiplied a thousandfold man's dependence upon the written word, and reading supplanted to a great measure his dependence on listening. In addition, the learning process became centered upon the use of the printed word and the required techniques to learn by reading.

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