Associative Experiment as a Way to Research a Concept for the Foreign Language Teaching Purposes

One of the important tasks of modern foreign language teaching is the selection and inclusion in the learning content not just lexical units, but concepts that convey the meaning in the language and reflect the picture of the world of speakers of the language being studied. The conceptual sphere of each nation is unique, and its development is a rather complicated process. The presence of the same concepts in two languages does not mean that their lexical content will be the same. Moreover, the understanding key foreign language concepts is undoubtedly important for those who study it as a foreign language. That's why it is necessary for the foreign language teaching purposes to study concepts and the words representing it. First of all, the meaning of concepts is studied on the basis of the analysis of dictionary entries. In addition to the analysis of dictionary entries, one of the effective ways to study foreign language concepts is an associative experiment aimed first of all at identifying its periphery. In the article are presented the results of an associative experiment in the study of the concept "Travel" in Russian and German languages. The purpose of the study was to identify the similarities and differences in the characteristics of this concept in different languages and to determine their meaning from the point of view of the foreign language teaching. Based on this study, it can be concluded that the associative field of the same concept is different in different languages, which is connected with the peculiarities of the perception of certain concepts existing in language and culture. We consider many words and concepts through the prism of culture, which is associated with the features of the processes of conceptualization and the formation of a linguistic picture of the world. In addition, the study of not only the nuclear zone of the concepts, but also its periphery will provide an opportunity to master the language at a deeper level and will contribute to its more effective acquisition.

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