Actualization of the meaning of the lexeme "power" in the naive minds of schoolchildren

This study is connected with the necessary order, requiring from schoolchildren, who are expected to become full citizens of the country, the correct interpretation of political vocabulary. The purpose of the article is to consider the meaning of the lexeme POWER in the naive minds of schoolchildren in grades 10-11 and, based on the results obtained, to give some methodological recommendations for the study of political vocabulary in general education institutions. An associative experiment was conducted, in which 22 schoolchildren from grades 10-11 participated; 13 girls and 9 boys.65 associations were received, which made up 9 thematic groups. The results of the experiment showed that the core and the pre-core zone of the associative field determine the concretization of the meaning of the lexeme, which does not seem to be key from the point of view of the political semantics of the lexeme. To fill in the gaps in the study of such vocabulary, it is possible to turn to methodological techniques for expanding the lexicon. The perception of the political lexeme POWER in the naive minds of schoolchildren turns out to be concentrated around the associations of the state, the president and the personality of V.V. Putin, located in the core of the associative field. The pre-nuclear zone refines this meaning. As the experiment showed, in the naive minds of schoolchildren there is a desire to concretize the meaning of the lexeme. As the results of the study show, the meaning of the lexeme POWER in terms of state and local government is not key in the naive minds of schoolchildren.