What exactly is a "module"?
 

I'm kind of a newbie at Linux but adventurous enough to try out Slackware. After some toying around, I got it to install -- my monitor/videocard works, the internet works, and even the nvidia driver is installed. The only thing missing is my sound.

In researching how to get my sound card configured, I ran into this concept (if I can call it that) of "modules." How does that relate to what I'm trying to do, and is it the same thing as a "driver?"

From what I understand, I can also recompile my kernel to streamline it to match up precisely with my system, and these "modules" would be a part of the kernel. Do I have it right? Does recompiling make for a faster system?

Thanks for all your help.

yes they are drivers per se.

in a console (as root) type the following:

lsmod

look at the output of that (the above command prints out which modules are currently loaded into the kernel) and see if you see any of the following:

snd
snd-pcm-oss
snd-mixer-oss
snd-xxxxx (where xxxxx is some type of card)

if you don't see these then most likely there's not a driver loaded and you will have to load it yourself with the command (as root):

modprobe <driver>

check out the alsa (just put it in google, can't miss it) site for your particular sound card and which driver it needs.