ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes practitioners’ reflections and lessons learned in implementing task-based language teaching (TBLT) in the context of L2 Russian classrooms. It reviews the aspects of how tasks, authenticity, and cultural awareness are interconnected; as well as the intertwined nature of tasks, learner-centeredness, and motivation; and brings forward the challenges of teaching L2 Russian in a task-based setting. We particularly discuss issues of the definition of task through the lens of practitioners, what assessment can look like in a TBLT-based L2 Russian classroom and how it should be conducted, along with other practical matters of teaching Russian in general and particularly through tasks. We add a fourth real issue for TBLT instruction (Long, 2016), and bring forward the institutional support available to teachers as an essential real issue the language teaching profession is facing in general (not Russian-specific). The chapter also offers some practical advice gleaned from the experience of implementing TBLT in the L2 Russian context along with the candid reflections of the challenges encountered. Then, we offer remaining questions and future directions that may help inform future scientific inquiry. The chapter ends with a call to teachers of L2 Russian to (a) shift their instruction by making it more learner-centered, holistically meeting needs of the diverse L2 Russian students; (b) recognize their power to better support students by attending to the teacher’s own professional development; and (c) change the professional and societal – both implicit and explicit – discourse of the field of Russian language study from the current narrative of difficulties of learning Russian to that of success and possibilities for learners to attain high levels of proficiency, which can be achieved by consciously shaping a more learner-friendly and responsive environment.
