he article presents the results of research on theoretical sources of the speech habits and skills concept formulated by Prof. S. F. Shatilov, a famous St. Petersburg methodologist whose ideas have infuenced Russian academic theory of developing learners’ foreign language speech activity in the classroom. The author considers the earlier habits and skills concepts developed by Russian researchers M. M. Pistrak and P. N. Gruzdev in the 1930s-1940s, and their refections in later works in pedagogy and foreign language teaching theory. It is concluded that Shatilov’s concept was founded on the concept suggested by P. N. Gruzdev and its methodological interpretation in the research of I. D. Salistra. The article also describes specifc features of S. F. Shatilov’s speech habits and skills concept.