7.2: How Listen to Microphone Output?

I am having trouble setting up my microphone with dictation (IBM ViaVoice) software: the software does not appear to hear the microphone. The Soundblaster Live/ ViaVoice microphone combo works flawlessly with Dragon NaturallySpeaking under Windows. It would be helpful if I could hear my microphone output under Linux, but I have not discovered how to do that. All thoughts on my best approach are welcome. geno