Novel Nepali Word Learning in Adult- Modality and Context

Learning a word form and its meaning is known as word learning. First language (L1) are naturally acquired by multi-contextual language exposure, whereas second languages (L2) are typically learned through artificial means. Although the naturalness and richness of context have been cited as the reasons why first languages are superior, some theories contend that multi-context input causes needless lexical activation of semantic nodes, which even hinders acquiring words. Furthermore, not muchresearch has been done on the effect of modes while learning. The purpose of the current study aims to look into these facets of context and modality beneficiaries.The objectives of the studies were to compare the total number of words learned across auditory, visual, and auditory visual modalities on immediate and delayed recall tasks and to compare the total number of words learned across low and high semantic contexts on immediate and delayed recall tasks. A total of sixty university level students were taken for the study and divided into three cohort-1, 2 and 3. The first cohort learned words in low context through auditory mode only, the second cohort learned word in mid context through visual mode of pictures and written grapheme. The third cohort learned word through high context and rich modality sentences using audio-visual mode. Three presentations of each word were made to ensure fast mapping. Recall of the material was carried out on the first and third day. The total amount of words learned was compared within and across groups. The mean scores showed increase in word learning with contexts. On the application of statistical test, a significant difference in learning was observed between first and third group i.e. low and high context group, while such statistical significant difference was lacking between second and third group, and between first and second group. Similarly, the difference between immediate and delayed recall was insignificant for 1st and 2nd cohorts, while for third cohorts there was significant difference.Context was found to be beneficiary for word learning, higher the contexts, the better the scores. However, there was lack of significant difference in word learning scores from mid to high context, in neurotypical adult, probably due to advance executive functioning. Also, auditory mode is shown to be less effective than visual and audito-visual modes for learning. The context dependent learning can arise in condition of high context exposure, which errourneosly can result in false positive learning on immediate recall scores.