Konstantyniv O. - The structure and mechanisms of listening

Contact: Oksana Konstantyniv, PhD Kamianets-Podilsky Ivan Ohienko National University. 

 The early and pre-school age is the period of the most intense speech formation, the effectiveness of which depends on the functioning and interaction of different analyzing systems. The development and improvement of various components of speech perception takes place at this time, due to which the child begins to differentiate spatial, temporal, timbre, sound, dynamic, rhythmic and phonemic features of sounds (A. Bogush, N. Gavrilova, I. Marchenko, M. Sheremet, etc.) [2, 11, 15]. The formation of these components of perception offers the child ample opportunities to learn the world; it becomes a factor in the development of communication and speech. Speech perception is considered in two ways: on the one hand, as a subjective image of an object, phenomenon or process, it directly influences the analyzer, on the other hand, as the process of forming this image (the content of the word) [6,8,9,16]. In this regard, the study of the peculiarities of the formation of speech perception (listening comprehension) and their relations with the mechanisms of speech disorders is one of the conditions for successful therapy for children with speech disorders. The problem of teaching listening comprehension is one of the most urgent topics in modern language teaching methods, since communication is a two-way process and it is not possible without listening comprehension. The concept of listening comprehension involves the process of perception and understanding of speech. It is also known that listening comprehension is an important aspect of speech. The unformed listening skills often cause speech disorders. Listening skills are only formed in the process of listening comprehension. There is also a need to understand the speech of different tempo, intonation and level of correctness. The article analyzes the term "listening comprehension" from the standpoint of psychology, linguistics and psycholinguistics, develops its phases, and describes its mechanisms. Listening comprehension is the basis of communication, it is from where the mastering of speech begins. Listening comprehension consists of the ability to differentiate the sounds perceived, combine them into semantic complexes, hold them in memory when listening, distribute and predict them, and, depending on the situation, understand the perceived communication purpose.

Key words: listening comprehension, speech perception, language, speech, speech activity, speech comprehension.