I think mostly from context or tone of voice only. for example, I can say 'ой, я все прослушала', which means 'oops, I missed everything somebody said'. so exclamation 'oops' obviously points to the fact that you failed to hear smth. and when I say 'я прослушала лекцию/курс', in most cases it'll have the positive meaning, like 'I listened to/hear through a lecture/course'

Just remember simple thing: 1) if you are talking about one single person then "прослушать" means "fail to hear something". You can say "прослушать" someone ONLY with meaning "fail to hear something" . So if the object is human then "прослушать" is "fail to hear something". Пример: Я тебя прослушал (I missed what you said), Вы прослушали что я сказал (You missed what I said) 2) You can "прослушать" with meaning "hear through" song, or musical composition or lecture or group of people. So if the object is an inanimate object, then "прослушать" means "hear through" Пример: a)Я прослушал замечательную композицию (I listened to wonderful song) b) Мы прослушали замечательную лекцию (We have heard a great lecture)

Hi, You basicly distinguish them from the context and the speaker's intonation.

oh maybe i've got the meaning from "audition". thank you

thank you Andrey for the explanation. but it's not so clear the meaning of "prowhisper" for me. i would be pleased if you could explain..