The impact of visual support on the development of listening skills in cadets of non-linguistic specialties at higher military educational institutions

Abstract

Background. The article examines the impact of visual support on the development of listening skills in cadets of non-linguistic specialties at higher military educational institutions. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to improve cadets' comprehension of foreign-language audio materials, especially when their opportunities to use a foreign language outside the academic environment are limited.
Methods. An experimental study was conducted with two groups of cadets who had the same level of foreign language proficiency. The first group completed listening tasks using audio materials with video support, while the second group worked only with audio materials. The results were assessed through a listening comprehension test, detail-recall tasks, and self-assessment questionnaires.
Results. The cadets who worked with audio-video materials demonstrated better results in understanding the content and recalling details. On average, they gave 15% more correct answers and recalled 20% more additional details compared with the cadets who worked only with audio. The self-assessment questionnaires also showed a higher level of comfort among cadets who used multimodal materials.
Conclusions. The findings confirm the effectiveness of using multimodal materials for developing listening skills in cadets of nonlinguistic specialties. Visual support helps learners understand the context, reduces cognitive load, and improves the interpretation of non-verbal communication signals.