Strangely enough, listening in my native language can sometimes be a source of anxiety if I'm not engaged in what is being said. In such a case, I have a hard time paying attention to everything that's being said, but, most of time, I'm able to catch what's salient or pertinent in the message.
In relation to second languages, especially in relation to Japanese, my experience was pretty coherent to what the class reading have posited. I'd first recognize the language was something other than my own, then I'd isolate words, then phrases and, sometimes, I'd understand the gist. However, I'd only understand the gist if I spent a little while contemplating what has just been said.
I remember getting anxious for Japanese when a peer would speak to me and wait for answer while I was still trying to figure what had just been said. During my first few weeks in Japan, I used to get large headaches from trying to process, filter and retain all of the information that was coming my way, but eventually it died down. On the other hand, I would feel anxious to Spanish only when there are certain words I wasn't familiar with and then I was expected to give a comment or answer. Usually, I understand pretty instantaneously unless it's a different dialect of Spanish like Argentinean, for example.
In the classroom at FIU, we were only tested on listening skills for homework exercises using a machine and then a test. It never really felt fair because we usually spoke in English in the classrooms and we weren't given enough exposure to the language.
In the classroom Ristumeikan University, if I didn't listen then I'd have no idea what was going on. (The classes were taught only in Japanese) I thought this was better to regards in forcing us to train our ears, but cross linguistic analysis between Japanese and English may have been more beneficial.
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