This research was aimed at justifying the continuity between the course «Russian language as a mother tongue» and the course «School rhetoric», as well as to actualize the semantical and methodological aspects of school rhetoric, which can serve as a pillar in the teaching of a new subject. The primary research method was a comparative analysis of the curricula «Russian language as a mother tongue» and «School rhetoric». It is shown that, despite differences in the curriculum, these subjects share the function of supporting the main course of the Russian language. Although both relying on the linguistic competence of students formed by the course «Russian language», these courses have their own goals and objectives, as well as the content and teaching methods. It is concluded that the goals of the «Russian language as a mother tongue» course are largely consistent with those of «School rhetoric», including the pedagogical objective of forming students’ respectful attitude towards their mother tongue and native culture; developing students’ civic and patriotic qualities; improving communication skills and speech technique of students; the formation of meta-subject competencies.The content of the «Russian language as a mother tongue» and «School rhetoric» courses overlap in covering the following topics: orthology, speech etiquette, the concept of a communicative situation, language activities, genres of oral and written speech, text as a unit of communication, netiquette, etc. The potential of the rhetoric method in organizing the learning activities aimed at the formation of students’ communicative competence are demonstrated on the example of the topic «Scientific and academic styles. Report, presentation» covered in Year 9 of the «Russian language as a mother tongue» course. The general conclusion is that teachers can use the experience of teaching rhetoric at school when implementing a new course «Russian language as a mother tongue».