Podcasts as a Means of Listening Skills Developing When Teaching French in a Non-Linguistic University

Abstract

This article presents the features of teaching listening to students of a non-linguistic university using podcasts. Being a perceptual type of speech activity, listening is nevertheless inextricably linked with productive types - speaking and writing, therefore, it is impossible to talk about the formed foreign language communicative competence without proper development of listening skills. The podcasts used in the work in the classroom do not have to be authentic, in contrast to the exercises for them - it is the authenticity of the exercises, i.e., their correspondence to the real conditions of communication, increases the motivation of non-linguistic students and contributes to the most effective formation of skills. Working with podcasts as a means of developing students' listening skills can be organized using the well-known three-step model of teaching the types of speech activities. The authors consider sample exercises for each of the three levels, emphasizing the importance of continuity of exercises and the need to adapt the material and exercises to the level of language training of the group. In conclusion, the authors conclude that podcasts in teaching French are a really effective means of developing listening skills in a non-linguistic university, since their didactic potential allows not only the teacher to organize work in the classroom, but also gives students a tool to create a strategy for self-education by means of the French language outside the classroom.