A textocentric case as a linguo-didactic basis of the modern Russian language lesson

Abstract

The meta-disciplinary status of the academic subject "Russian Language" determines the specific features of its teaching strategy. The speech development of a student’s personality should be the main objective of Russian language teaching. It is legitimate to consider the communicative-activity approach as the framework for language education. This choice is conditioned by the need to form students’ ideas of language as a communication tool. Thus, the topical issue in the modern educational environment is to search for and implement while teaching Russian such organisational forms that would contribute to students’ speech development. The case method seems to be a productive way of organising the educational process. The approach balances the communicative aspect with the development of students’ cognitive and regulatory skills. Moreover, it promotes their autonomous work. Besides, cases enable teachers to shape the educational process based on the textocentric principle of Russian language learning. It is through working with text that students comprehend language as a means of fulfilling communicative objectives. The paper aims to provide a rationale for the principles of constructing a textocentric case as the linguo-didactic basis for modern lessons of Russian. We propose a concept of the structural organisation of a textocentric case. It consists of a text, additional materials, and a set of questions and assignments whose purpose is to interpret the text, enhance cognitive activity as well as facilitate students’ speech creation development. The logic of compiling a list of questions and assignments teachers select is based on their division into blocks. These enquires and tasks are preparatory, perceptual, intratextual, contextual, and project-speech-creative. They are combined into blocks depending on their common specific goal. Achieving this objective becomes a stage in comprehending the text and the role of linguistic phenomena functioning in it. We also provide a case example consistent with the defined concept.