Blended Learning Russian as a Foreign Language: The Principles of Organization and Implementation Experience

This article reveals the benefits of implementing "blended learning" in the practice of teaching Russian as a foreign language at the initial stage. The paper presents a brief analysis of the current state of the problem, describes the reasons for insufficient dissemination of blended learning in the Russian educational space and in the sphere of learning Russian as a foreign language. Then the article presents a complex model of blended learning Russian as a foreign language covering the levels of proficiency from A1 to B1 and describes in detail the components of this model, namely its three components: the stage of independent work with electronic resources, the stage of communication work in a group and the control stage. Special attention is paid to the principles of organization of independent work of students in the electronic environment, among which the principle of sustaining the motivation in independent learning, the principle of providing comprehensive assistance in the learning process, the principles of maximum variation and filling variability of electronic tasks, etc. play the important role. The article describes also a component of the classroom communication activities of students under the guidance of a teacher, which is based on the plotted and grammaticalized author's texts. The basic theoretical principles that constitute the description of the developed by the authors blended learning model are illustrated in the article with examples of the tasks, the texts and the presentation material.