DEVELOPING SPEECH PERCEPTION SKILLS FOR BETTER LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Abstract

This article provides arguments for incorporating bottom-up practice activities into listening instruction at university EFL classroom. It begins with a brief overview of the current research into listening, followed by a review of main processing components involved in speech comprehension. Also, the paper discusses Ukrainian pre-service teachers’ major listening difficulties and reasons which prevent them from developing listening fluency in English. The role of the speech processor in the process of teaching listening comprehension has been determined. Psycholinguistic peculiarities of its development are discussed. It is proved that a well-developed L2 speech processor will ensure adequate perception of foreign speech and auditory self-control of one’s own articulation. Activities for enriching Ukrainian university students’ L2 perceptual experience (transcribing, noticing exercises) and training their L2 pronunciation (reading aloud, shadow reading) are suggested. Finally, it is concluded that improvement in speech perception makes listening process increasingly automatic, which in turn makes the development of top-down listening skills more effective.