Siju Rana

Studies of human language processing employ metrics like cloze probability and surprisal as proxies of a word's contextual probability. There already exist corpora of cloze probability-normed sentences for many languages of Germanic and Romance families, but relatively few resources are available in other language families, and none whatsoever in the Nepali language. Here we report a dataset of cloze-normed Nepali sentences together with the information-theoretic measure of surprisal. We also calculate the contextual constraint of the sentences using metrics of type-token ratio and proportion of idiosyncratic responses. We establish the relationships between a word's contextual probability and the contextual constraint of the sentence generating those words. With this, the present study aims to create a corpus of cloze-normed Nepali sentences, providing resources for diverse research (e.g., predictive language processing) in this understudied language.

Introduction: Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) involves deficits in the processing of auditory information within the central nervous system. Children with CAPD remain undiagnosed in Nepal due to a lack of assessment tools. Developing a screening tool for CAPD in the Nepali language is needed to identify at-risk children. Material and methods: Fisher’s Auditory Problems Checklist (FAPC) and the Children’s Auditory Performance Checklist (CHAPS) were translated into Nepali using the translation/back-translation method. The questionnaires were administered to 100 students in the Kathmandu valley using cluster sampling. Internal consistency and test–retest reliability analysis were undertaken, and validity was measured in terms of face validity. Results: Cronbach’s alpha was 0.761 for FAPC and 0.949 for CHAPS. All questions received a rating of > 4 from 5 audiologists, confirming their adequacy in terms of content, clarity, and intended purpose. Pearson’s r-value of 0.998 for CHAPS and 0.775 for FAPC was obtained in test–retest reliability analysis. Conclusions: The Nepali versions of Fisher’s checklist and CHAPS demonstrated good internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and face validity, supporting their use as preliminary CAPD screening tools.

The objective of this research was to identify the prevalence of voice disorders among teachers in the Kathmandu District of Nepal, with an emphasis on identifying possible risk factors that may be associated with these disorders. A cross-sectional study design was used, with both quantitative and qualitative data-gathering techniques using a mixed-methods approach. Data were collected from 95 non-teachers and 194 participating teachers from different schools in Kathmandu Valley. The analysis covered self-reported voice problem prevalence, job details, and demographic data. We examined the relationships between several variables and voice issues, including gender, class size, length of instruction, and tobacco usage. Findings: Compared with nonteachers (33.7%), teachers had a considerably greater prevalence of voice issues (69.1%). Greater class size and more than ten years of teaching experience were shown to be risk factors, while female instructors reported a greater prevalence of voice issues. Additionally, it was shown that instructors’ voice issues are also linked to tobacco usage. The results of this study highlight how critical it is to provide voice therapy to educators employed in the Kathmandu District, particularly those in at-risk categories such as female instructors, more experienced educators, and educators with larger class sizes. The outcomes demonstrated important impacts on teacher well-being, job satisfaction, and academic achievement. More research and intervention strategies are needed to minimize the effects of voice problems and promote a positive teaching and learning environment.