The article presents the actual issues of teaching listening skill in the foreign language for young learners as a way of boosting their cognitive and moral development. It is scientifically proven that cognitive development and speech activity are interconnected. As phonemic hearing and working memory are the main mechanisms in listening, a teacher needs to devote special learning time to develop these processes. For successful learning and teaching, it is of utmost importance to consider neurophysiological and psycholinguistic mechanisms of speech development as well as psychophysiological characteristics of a young learner. The results of the survey conducted in N. Novgorod and its region have also helped to identify the most effective ways of developing primary schoolers’ moral characteristics in listening activity in a foreign language.

Keywords: listening mechanisms, foreign language, cognitive development, primary school, metasubject skills and intersubject connections