Listening as a Speech Activity Type and an Element of Teaching in The University

Abstract

This article is devoted to listening as the main receptive type of speech activity. Along with reading, writing and speaking listening is a complex process of human mental activity, the fundamental moment of its successful implementation if conditioned by motivation. Motivation creates an internal readiness to perceive information. Perception is classified as global, detailed and critical. The authors of the article distinguish between such concepts as hearing and listening, because hearing does not allow fixing attention on details. “Listening” and “hearing” as processes of mental activity that facilitate the reproduction and comprehension of material are understood differently by teachers, methodologists and researchers. A university lecture provides for the special demands on the organization of the inner side of listening, which is not limited only by the semantic perception of information, while perception is defined as the initial stage of listening. The analysis of speech perception by human ear assumes its three levels: phonemic, morphemic and verbal-phase, characterizing the process of listening. The listening process inevitably involves such characteristics of human speech as intonation, accent, playback speed, local dialects, as well as the media from which the listening material is reproduced during lectures, since most lecture materials can be presented in the form of audio and video recordings from a computer, smartphone, or any other recording device. Listening is not only a type of speech activity, but it also acts as an element of learning.

The article proposes a system of training exercises that improve the quality of listening skills; exercises are systematized in accordance with the general didactic principle "from simple to complex".