the following null hypothesis was proposed: there is no significant difference between the efl students listening comprehension development receiving pictorial cues and those receiving no cuse. to test the null hypothesis, 52 male and femal freshmen students of medicine studing at iran university of medical scinces were randomly selected from a total population of 72 students. to ensure that the subjects were homogeneous, a toefl test consisting of 30 multiple choice items on listening was administred. the results revealed that the null hypothesis was rejected. the observed t-vaue (4.51) exceeded the t-critical value (2.0105) at 0.001 possibility with 50 degrees of freedom. in short, the findings support what muller found, the use of contextual visuals improves listening comprehension for less proficient students and that visuals serve as advance organizers and enhance students ability to formulate correct hypotheses.