The contextual approach in the history of Russian foreign language education

The contextual approach, as one of the components of the methodological and pedagogical foundation, when trying to use it in pedagogical research, reveals the incompleteness of the scientific idea of its essence, formation and development as a scientific phenomenon. It is necessary to state that the role of the contextual approach in solving pedagogical problems is insufficiently studied, and this, in turn, negatively affects the effectiveness of building an educational foreign-language process. A deep and detailed understanding of the theory and history of the development of the “contextual approach” phenomenon allows us to identify its role in the implementation of the strategy of coordinated actions of educational environment's external and internal factors, in the provision of flexible content design, and in the definition of a system of active methods and forms of teaching foreign languages. The article aims to characterize the stages of the historical path of the practice of the contextual approach in foreign language education, to reveal the factors that led to the enrichment of the elements of the contextual approach at each stage. The study is carried out taking into account the dialectical laws and principles (consistency, connection of the historical and the logical, unity of the single, the general and the special, objectivity, substantiality, and integrity) and using a set of methods of analysis, comparison, generalization of facts and ideas, which allowed us to present the path of the historical development of the contextual approach as a movement based on the change of stages (phases). For each phase, a specific idea is defined, its architecture is proposed, and its construction is designed. The article proves that the change of phases of the development of the contextual approach (initialization, constructive design, mobilization, conversion, stabilization) is subject to the principle of continuity: the elements of the previous phase are embodied in the next one. Based on this evidence, the article formulates a conclusion about the continuous enrichment of the contextual approach with new elements in the course of its development, which, in turn, led to the improvement of foreign language education. The experience of studying the history of the formation of the contextual approach in Russian foreign language education, first, contributes to the understanding of the path of the formation of theoretical foundations in pedagogy. Second, knowledge of the historical development of theoretical foundations is an important factor in enriching modern foreign language education with deep and perfect methodological guidelines, which contributes to improving the quality of foreign language education. Third, the materials presented will serve as a basis for the study of the history of the formation of other theoretical and methodological foundations of foreign language education.

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