Issues and prospects of teaching Russian vocabulary in the first quarter of the 21st century

Abstract

The article examines the current issues of teaching lexicology in Russian language lessons in modern schools and identifies development prospects for the methodology of lexicology in the 21st century. The article aims to summarise the achievements of methodology since the introduction of the "Vocabulary and Phraseology" section into school curricula in the 20th century, which is associated with the scientific and pedagogical activities of Professor M. T. Baranov. Another goal is to show how to implement his ideas in the paradigm of modern education. The paper focuses on the importance of developing logical and figurative thinking when studying lexicology. With this end in view, the comprehensive school curriculum is analysed. In it, the "Lexicology" section is present only in years 5 and 6. Moreover, the study draws attention to the content deficiencies associated with underestimating the available significant scientific and practical experience of teaching word meaning interpretation, as well as the problem of enriching the modern youth’s lexicon with vocabulary related to values. The assignments on lexicology proposed for completion are designed according to the methodological principle of graduality. The tasks are based on the axiological and cognitive-pragmatic approaches within the framework of teaching functional semantics. The study employed the descriptive method for historical and logical analysis of M. T. Baranov’s works and the modelling method when constructing a system of graded exercises. A future research line is developing a functional vocabulary teaching model for secondary general education schools.