THE UTILIZATION OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) TOOLS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF LISTENING SKILLS IN THE PROCESS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION

The article deals with the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) as an essential component in the development of listening skills among higher education learners in the process of foreign language education. It also clarifies the concept of ICT and suggests criteria for selecting ICT tools that may be applied in the development of listening skills of higher education learners as an important condition for language. Additionally, it discusses the importance of communicative competence and its role in the learners' learning process in higher education institutions. The study emphasizes the significance of listening orientation in the learning process of a foreign language and Ukrainian as a foreign language, in particular, in educational institutions. The article suggests effective ICT means for developing listening skills in foreign languages, including the use of virtual learning platforms, interactive virtual scenarios, podcasts, audiobooks, interactive tasks, speech recognition technologies, language apps, online lectures, and videos demonstrating various approaches to using ICT for the development of listening skills in higher education institutions. In addition to the aforementioned, it presents tools for developing listening skills in the process of learning Ukrainian as a foreign language in a higher education institution, contributing to the improvement of perceptual and understanding skills, pronunciation development, and vocabulary expansion, in particular, the use of audio recordings for listening to dialogues, audio books, podcasts in Ukrainian, interactive audio games; creating exercises using modern Internet platforms.The article concludes that the use of ICT in the development of students' listening skills in the process of foreign language education is a necessity today, especially in the conditions of quarantine restrictions and the full-scale war in Ukraine. It highlights that ICT tools have the potential to stimulate the improvement of communicative skills, positively impacting the organization of the entire language education process through their informativeness, reliability, visual aids, and the intensification of learning.