Phenomenological and Operational Characteristics of the Speech Competence of Preschool Children

Abstract

Based on a retrospective analysis of the academic discourse of several decades, the article shows that the term “speech competence” has not received a commonly accepted definition, especially when it comes to the preschool age. The study conducted by the authors has made it possible to determine the phenomenological characteristics of the preschoolers’ speech competence, considering it as a dynamic integral personal quality, manifested in the ability and willingness to successfully listen, perceive and reproduce information, be engaged in conversation, express personal opinions and points of view in the oral form in accordance with the age norm. Its lexical, phonological, grammatical, dialogical and monological functional components have been identified and defined subject to pedagogical impact. These components contain operational characteristics of the speech competence of preschoolers. The speech competence of preschool children includes also the following meta-components: awareness of the ways and means of speech interaction; adequacy of selection of available speech skills, their application in speech activity; orientation in a communication situation; complex, variable and creative application of speech and non-speech means in accordance with the set goal. Following the internal structure of the speech competence of preschool children in the educational process should make it more systematic and the results of this process easier to measure in their complex, integrative wholeness.