Hi Marcus, thanks for raising a very interesting and important topic.
I absolutely agree with the value that you attach to a vital area.
Your observation about how pronunciation ability affects listening
ability is also spot on in my opinion.

Pronunciation has been a big problem area for language learners for
many many years – but the situation faced by learners is now getting
better all the time. The old days of having to learn pronunciation
predominantly from written „rules" and exposure to text are
(fortunately) disappearing rapidly.

Learners today can benefit from vastly improved TV and radio
communication, computers and the Internet. There is a very different
and much more authentic learning environment than even 30 years ago …
and plenty of opportunities to listen/look at words before attempting
to imitate them.

Some languages (e.g Spanish) do – it's true - have very logical and
useful pronunciation „rules" … but you have to have sympathy for
those playing the „learning-English-as-a-foreign-language" game. How
on earth do we teach pronunciation „rules" for …

rough, cough, though, thought, bough (bow!!!), through (threw!!) etc
etc.?? How can learners effectively read (reed!) what is being read
(red!) ...unless they have had plenty of exposure to sound??

It's difficult! (if not impossible) … and there is only one real
solution in my opinion. Learners really need to have the opportunity
to see, hear and imitate a lot of words in order to improve their
pronunciation. The ideal solution, of course, is to live in a country
where the language is spoken – but a lot of web sites in today's
global village also offer very good ( and free) exposure to the
sounds of different words. My own favourite site in this area is

http://www.languageguide.org/english/index.jsp

Please let me know of any other similar sites that might be usefully
added to WS! Multi–media resources can provide even better
pronunciation exposure/practice/checking … but these cost a little
more than free web sites (of course).

So … technological advances continue to change language learning
possibilities – and will surely be used more and more in the future
to help learners improve their pronunciation. (I think/hope/expect)

Best wishes
Will