The development of speech skills is very necessary in the modern world, since it allows people to exchange information, establish communication and provide interaction

Relative difficulty. Structural “units” of activity, according to A.N. Leontiev, are mobile: they can become more fractional or enlarged. A skill as an action can consist of smaller, elementary actions. But it itself can be included in a more complex skill. Therefore, it is legitimate to talk about its relative complexity. An elementary action, of course, can also be called a skill if it functions at the appropriate level of speech ability.
A skill action may not necessarily be monosyllabic. As the activity is carried out, the actions included in it not only become even more strengthened in themselves, but also “grow”. So, at the skill level, not only a word, phrase, syntagma, but also a whole phrase or even chains of phrases can be used. But the growth of these “skill chains” is not unlimited: otherwise it would be possible to automate all speech.
Generalization as a quality of skill is not separately identified by all psychologists. Most often it is spoken of as the main condition for transferring a skill. But it should be noted that in psychology, as a rule, either motor skills or intellectual skills are considered, but speech skills themselves (although they are classified as intellectual) are not considered. Since we are talking about speech skills, it is impossible not to mention the qualities of generalization separately. Moreover, if we keep in mind grammatical and syntactic skills. Therefore, when mastering such skills, it is important that the student understands and masters the model (structure) of a particular speech pattern.
So, the main qualities of speech skills are automation, stability, generalization, flexibility, and relative complexity.
Speech skill is a speech operation carried out according to optimal parameters. Such parameters are unconsciousness, complete automaticity, compliance with the norm of language, normal pace (speed) of execution, stability, that is, the identity of the operation with itself under changing conditions. If, according to these criteria (parameters), a speech operation satisfies us, it means that the student performs it correctly - the speech skill is formed.
Let us next consider the stages of speech skill formation. In accordance with the scheme of the main stages of skill formation available in the psychological literature and taking into account the specifics of speech skills, S.F. Shatilov identifies the following three stages:
1. Orientation and preparatory;
2. Stereotyping-situational;
3. Variable-situational.
At the first stage, there is no skill as such yet, but the basis for its development is laid, motivation is created, the material is explained, feedback is provided, and the students’ first actions take place. There are two ways to develop a skill: a practical path and a theoretical-practical path. At the second stage, work begins on creating a stereotype, the stability and strength of the skill is developed, its automation is laid down, and stereotypical situations are used for this. At the third stage, flexibility and transferability are formed - a variety of situations are used. It must be remembered that new grammatical material must be practiced using well-studied vocabulary and vice versa. Speech can only be taught to a limited extent in a school setting. When establishing the actual scope of speech teaching content at school, it is necessary to take into account the main features of speech:
– speech is carried out with the participation of two parties: the side expressing their thoughts, and the side perceiving other people’s thoughts;
– communication in the form of speech can be carried out with complete mutual understanding only if both parties participating in the communication use the same speech material. Reproduction of speech material occurs as a result of reproduction in oral form, i.e. speaking, which creates oral speech and reproduction in written form, i.e. writing, which creates written language. The perception of speech material is carried out through the perception of spoken speech (i.e. listening) and the perception of written speech (i.e. reading). All these types of speech are not valid without understanding;
– each of the participants in communication is in a different relationship to the speech material. When perceiving speech material, the participant in communication is forced to perceive the material that he hears or sees. He is entirely in the power of the speaker, therefore he must have a strong command of the speech material that the participant in communication who expresses his thoughts has. The volume of material reproduced by a student when speaking and writing will always be lower than the material he perceives when reading and listening.
To develop a speech skill means to ensure that the student correctly constructs and implements the utterance. But for full communication it is necessary that, firstly, we be able to use speech skills in order to independently express our thoughts, intentions, experiences; otherwise, speech activity turns out to be formed only partially, at the level of its implementation. It is necessary, secondly, that we can arbitrarily, and perhaps consciously, vary the choice and combination of speech operations (skills) depending on for what purpose, in what situation, with what interlocutor the communication takes place. When a person can do all this, we say that he has developed the appropriate speech (communicative, communicative-speech) skill. To possess such a skill means to be able to choose the right style of speech, to subordinate the form of speech utterance to the tasks of communication, to use the most effective (for a given purpose and under given conditions) linguistic (and non-linguistic) means.
Speech skills by their nature are stereotypical and mechanical. And communicative and speech skills are creative in nature: after all, the conditions of communication are never completely repeated, and each time a person has to re-select the necessary language means and speech skills. This means that the methods of teaching communicative and speech skills should differ from the methods of teaching speech skills (A.A. Leontyev).
Zimnyaya I.A. defines the ability to speak a foreign language as a person’s ability to express or perceive thoughts through a given language. In a foreign language, listening skills, speaking skills, reading skills and writing skills are distinguished. Listening skill is the ability to perceive spoken speech. Speaking skill is the ability to convey one’s own thoughts orally. Reading ability is the ability to comprehend written language. Writing skill is the ability to convey ideas in written form. In speaking, since it exists in the form of monologue speech and in the form of dialogic speech, in addition, the skill of monologue speech (the ability to logically connect all parts of the text) and the skill of dialogic speech (the ability to spontaneously respond to cues) are distinguished.
Skills are built on a certain base, which is skills and knowledge . Ability is responsible for the content of the statement, skills are responsible for its form. Perfect mastery of the means of language (lexical, phonetic, grammatical) makes it possible to disconnect from the form and concentrate on the content. The skill is always creative. A skill is an automated component of a skill.
Skills are aspect-based and are divided into expressive and receptive: phonetic skills, grammatical skills, lexical skills. Phonetic skills have the highest degree of automation. Qualities of speech skills: focus, dynamism, productivity, integration, hierarchy, independence. According to methodologists, it is fundamentally important that the qualities of skills are based on the qualities of speech skills. The indicated dependence of qualities dictates, firstly, the need for the formation and development of all qualities without exception and in a complex, and secondly, the mandatory preliminary bringing of the qualities of skills to the proper level.
The development of speech skills is one of the most difficult tasks of school education. The level of proficiency in these skills, even in one’s native language, can vary (according to the degree of perfection). Therefore, S.F. Shatilov reveals the methodological content of the concept of “communicative skills” as follows: communication skills are mastery of types of speech activity as a means of communication with varying degrees of perfection. In a general education school, the realistically achievable level of speech skills is a limited, but communicatively sufficient level, which allows the student to understand oral speech that is simple in content and linguistic means, and to express simple thoughts in a simple form. It may not be error-free, but it is clear for the listener to understand simple texts without a dictionary, and more complex ones with the help of a dictionary.
In conclusion, we note that knowledge, skills and abilities are not formed sequentially, but in parallel. Solid knowledge is acquired in the process of developing skills and abilities. Memorization of material occurs during the development of a skill. For speech activity, it is necessary that a person automatically use language material, because in the process of communication the attention of the participants in communication is drawn to the content, and not to the form. However, speech skills alone do not provide the opportunity to participate in communication in a foreign language. Communication practice is necessary, during which speech skills are formed. From the above, it is clear that speech in a foreign language should be taught at school, since with the help of speech it is possible to communicate in a given language, i.e. Students need to be fluent in types of speech activity as means of communication. But speech is subject to certain norms characteristic of the system of a given language. Therefore, it is not possible to study speech without studying the language system. Since speech teaching in a school setting is limited, the material of the language system should be studied only to the extent that is actually necessary for teaching speech in a general education institution. By the end of the course of teaching a foreign language, the studied language material should be formed in the minds of students into a certain language system.
School education begins with basic reading and writing. In the future, the ability to read and write is improved, skills are strengthened, and the degree of their automation increases.