LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 16:1 January 2016
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Development of Vocabulary List in
Typically Developing Nepali Speaking Children Aged 1-5 Years

Shanta Dhakal
Satish Kumaraswamy

Abstract

Language is a complex and dynamic system of conventional symbols that is used in various modes for thought and communication (ASHA, 1982).Language acquisition is a phenomenon which emerges in the early childhood and is developed in nature. For language development, it is believed that symbolic functioning is rooted in imitation. Vocabulary occupies a central place in the language and it has its own characteristics in terms of meaning and grammatical function. Vocabulary refers to the set of words that a child comprehends and uses. Vocabulary helps to increase the strength of language competence and it plays roles in development of language, cognition and academic achievement.

Need: Nepali language is spoken in Nepal and many other nations in the world. There is no data base in Nepali language for processing communication disability in people who speak Nepali language. This paper takes the first step to establish a data base on vocabulary development of Nepali speaking typically developing children.

Aim: The present study aims to document the vocabulary development in Nepali speaking typically developing children in age range of 1-5 years.

Participants: Parents of 78 children in the age range of 1-5 years old were taken for the study. Children were divided into four groups of one year interval each, i.e., 22 children in 1-2 years group, 20 children in 2.1-3 years group, 18 children in 3.1-4 groups and 18 children in 4.1-5 years group. All the children are native speakers of Nepali. The children taken had no history of neurological disorders, speech and language disorders, ontological disorders, psychological and ophthalmic problems.

Materials: A word list in Nepali was coined with the help of Nepali dictionaries, Nepali textbooks, Nepali grammar books, manual on developing communication skills of mentally retarded persons (Subba Rao, 1992) and other available resources.. The word list consists of 444 words in 7 major categories which consist of nouns, pronouns, noun modifiers, verb modifiers, action words, conjunctions and others. The nouns were again divided into food items, clothes, furniture, kitchen items, fruits, body parts, animals, vegetables, insects, flower, vehicles, family members, school items, and birds. The word list comprised of comprehensive and expressive vocabulary for all the age groups. Three experienced professional Nepali lecturers and three experienced Nepali speech language pathologists analyzed and validated the list before starting the research programme.

Method: The aim of the study was explained to all the parents and they were instructed to tick each word from the list which their children can understand and produce consistently. The word list was given to each parent and asked to return after 2 days. The word list was analyzed based on the frequency of response obtained from the children through parental reports. Percentage of each category for comprehension and expression was calculated and it was compared among the group and across the groups. Statistical evaluation showed the frequencies of each word in a category for all the groups and across the groups. The percentage of words comprehended and expressed across the categories within a group and across the groups was calculated.

Results: The obtained results show that the percentage of comprehension and expression in different categories increased as the children’s age increased. The results are scattered across the group and this clearly shows that vocabulary development is not attained at the age of 5 years. The present study is in accordance with Meghana and Kumaraswamy (2014). The results are also similar to the result obtained in that study.

Keywords: Nepali, Vocabulary, comprehension, expression.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Shanta Dhakal
Student
Dr. M. V. Shetty College of Speech and Hearing
Mangalore 575015
Karnataka
India
dhshanta2050@gmail.com

SatishKumaraswamy
Assistant Professor
Dr. M. V. Shetty College of Speech and Hearing
Mangalore 575015
Karnataka
India
sat8378@yahoo.com

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