Abstract. The article deals with the problem of developing L2 auditory skills in Russian-

speaking students in the context of the phonetic diversity of the English language. The contradiction is revealed between the need to prepare learners for intercultural communication with non-native English speakers and the limited scope of phonetic instruction, primarily focused on the perception of English standard pronunciation. Based on the comparative analysis of Russian and international methodological approaches, the article indicates the urgency to udpate traditional practices of developing perception skills by incorporating phonetically variable samples into learning materials, raising learners’ awareness about accent diversity, developing targeted activities, and integrating speech synthesis systems. The proposed solutions are aimed at enabling learners to adequately perceive and interpret the communicative intention produced in most popular pronunciation variants, which is a key factor for successful intercultural communication.

Keywords: L2 perception skills, accent diversity, auditory skills, intercultural communication