The Structure of Process of Students' Learning the Visual-Semantic Representation of a Hieroglyphs

The article discovers the structure of students` learning the visual-semantic representation of a hieroglyph during their mastering the hieroglyph language at the linguistic faculties. The article gives explanations of the differences between the alphabetic and the hieroglyph writing implying the unusual symbol structure of the hieroglyph writing, the distinctions between the correlations of its graphic and phonemic components, the compression of the interpretation chain to “symbol-meaning” unlike in the phonemic writing where graphic nomination and sense interpretation are based on the principle of “a sound – a letter (a combination of letters) – a meaning”. There is the substantiation for the choice of an image as a form of cognition. In the article it is explained that an image is used in cases of possible conceptualizing, preserving, processing and knowledge transferring which stem from the commonness of objects` features when they are compared. The source for students` understanding the hieroglyph writing in this format is their already formed narrative of things and phenomena (obtained through their own experience), the vocabulary of their native language, knowledge of other languages etc. The article describes the process of mental reflection during image creation occurring at three levels of human mind: the sensor-perceptive level, the ideas level and the verbal-logic level. It proposes the definition of the visual-semantic image of a hieroglyph as an integral product of visual sensor perception of all graphic elements of the hieroglyph formal structure, its substantive understanding (preserved in the image memory) and ideas (sense) display secured by the meaning. The structure of a visual-semantic image is represented by a symbol (graphic elements of a hieroglyph); by a thing (phenomenon) which it renders; by a meaning (generally recognized in the language vocabulary); by personalized sense (subjective meaning) and by the feelings context as a special perceptive measure attributing specific features to an image. The article presents the scheme and describes the mechanism of the process of learning the visual-semantic representation of a hieroglyph as a symbol of writing possessing image, logical, symbolic features and containing the meaning of the language unit being written. There is the following conclusion done in the article: effective learning the hieroglyph writing by university students occurs by means of their obtaining the skill to form a visual-semantic image, to preserve it and to restore it, but it does not imply memorizing only and includes a wider spectrum of cognitive processes: perception, imagination, visual and conceptual thinking, speaking, personal cognitive strategies to learn the new, etc.