Now communicative listening ability, as one of the aspects in the applied linguistic research field, is being
paid an increasing attention to. However, most learners are still weak in listening comprehension. Halliday
(1967) started from meaning and stood for the hearer to analyze the language. Halliday (1967) first put forward
the idea of focus and pointed out that the information focus reflected new information. His approach gives us
some enlightenment in listening teaching.
This study tries to explain the process of learners’ listening comprehension within Halliday’s (1967)
information theory in functional grammar, and tries to illustrate the fact that identifying information focuses
helps learners’ listening comprehension.