Many studies have confirmed that visual cues provide considerable help to language learners in listening comprehension. However. no conclusion has yet been reached as to whether images or text are more effective as visual cues. The purpose of the present study was to examine and compare the different effects between verbal (text) and non-verbal (images) cues on listening comprehension. Twenty Chinese learners of advanced Japanese were divided into an image group or text group. Participants in the two groups were asked to examine related images or key words. while listening to the reading of three short articles in Japanese, each lasting around 1 minute. After one article was finished. the participants were asked to recall the content of the article in their mother tongue (LI) by writing it down immediately. They then answered true or false questions about the general ideas presented in the article. From a comparison of the test results of the two groups, the following conclusions were made. For these language learners who were proficient in Japanese. the image cues and text cues had almost have same effect in terms of listening comprehension. However. the image cues were clearly more effective than text cues in remembering the general ideas expressed in the article.