ABSTRACT
The chapter opens with a discussion of the cyclic nature of pedagogy and a brief overview of TBLT-related publications of the last decade. It then presents a comprehensive review of TBLT literature in the context of teaching L2 Russian beginning with Leaver and Kaplan (2004). The terms systemic mode (when an entire syllabus or institutional program is built and sequenced using task-based approach) and incremental mode (when teachers use tasks as an increment of instruction, more or less cohesively integrating them in an otherwise non-task-oriented course work, to include the use of tasks for assessment) are proposed to conceptualize and distinguish between the two ways tasks are used in teaching languages. Three instruments of task design are offered as potentially impactful for instructional design of task-based teaching of L2 Russian. The first instrument addresses Russian morphology and accounts for linguistic demands entailed in the task structure (based on Pallotti, 2019). The second instrument is the list of linguistic features that learners of L2 Russian should have command of, organized by proficiency levels (based on Long et al., 2012). The third instrument is the growing bank of pedagogical narrations of incremental and systemic models of task-based instruction of L2 Russian developed to date with a brief recap of the list. The chapter includes a comprehensive thematic analysis of the present volume’s contributions and their treatment of TBLT and its practice in L2 Russian classroom: (а) all tasks, whether used in systemic or incremental modes, involve a needs analysis before the task design; (b) the intention behind task design has a focus on meaning with a clear outcome other than the use of language; (c) the tasks involve authenticity in some form (either situational or interactional); (d) the tasks reflect a learner-centered approach that promotes learner agency and learner autonomy; (e) the tasks foster interaction. In addition, all contributions contain a cultural component, many authors emphasize proficiency development, feature technology-mediated tasks, address task sequencing, and reflect on the role of teacher and teacher agency in task-based instruction.
