This article provides a theoretical analysis of the psycholinguistic and pedagogical essence of listening comprehension skills. Listening comprehension is defined as a receptive type of speech activity, and its nature as an active cognitive process is examined through the perspectives of leading scholars such as J. Field and M. Rost. The article analyzes internal and external factors influencing the success of the listening process, as well as psychological mechanisms (attention, memory, perception, anticipation). A detailed discussion is provided on G. Buck's two-level model (identification and comprehension levels) and the three-stage pedagogical model (pre-listening, while-listening, and post-listening stages) developed by J. Wilson, J. Flowerdew, and L. Miller. The article substantiates the importance of a stage-by-stage approach, the use of metacognitive strategies, and the consideration of psychological factors in developing listening comprehension skills among higher education students.

The article theoretically explains the process of perceiving human speech and its close connection with auditory and memory mechanisms. It is emphasized that in understanding speech, logical stress, word order, syntactic structure, and the process of comparing speech with existing patterns in memory play an important role. In addition, the theories of scholars such as A.A. Leontiev and I.A. Zimnyaya regarding the stages of speech activity — motivation, planning, implementation, and control — are analyzed. In preschool age, the development of perception is closely linked with thinking, which shapes children’s abilities to analyze, compare, and generalize. Based on the views of scholars such as Ye.I. Tikheeva and B.V. Belyaev, the article scientifically substantiates the interconnected development of speech and cognitive growth in children. The step-by-step development of speech in accordance with children’s age characteristics — the expansion of vocabulary, acquisition of grammatical structures, and use of syntactic patterns — is also widely discussed. The article highlights the development of children’s speech in a social environment, through communication with adults and peers, and the importance of improving speech skills in family and preschool education settings. In conclusion, speech development in preschool age is a decisive factor in a child’s overall psychological development and success in the educational process, and it also serves as an important foundation for developing the ability to learn foreign languages.