Use of Languages by Nepalese Multilingual Speakers

Abstract

This study entitled 'Use of Languages by Nepalese Multilingual Speakers' aims to identify the Nepalese multilingual speakers' language use in various domains. It also analyses the attitudes of the participants towards languages they speak. To carry out this research, I selected ten multilingual speakers who could speak their mother tongues, Nepali and English equally competently.An unstructured interview was a major technique of the data collection. The responses obtained through the interview were analyzed qualitatively.The study revealed that the multilingual speakers use different languages in various domains.To analyze that phenomenon eight major domains viz. family, friendship, religion, education job,business, mass media and health were selected.The main finding of the study is that Nepali is dominantly used in almost all the domains and there no more priority is given to their mother tongues.It is recommended that equal importance should be given to all languages to preserve the multilingual identity of Nepal. This study is divided into four chapters along with references and appendices at the end.Chapter one includes basic concepts of multilingualism and the use of languages in the light of both past experiences and the most recent research along with the review of related literature, objective of the study, significance of the study and definitions of specific terms. Chapter two concerns with methodology of the study which contains sources of data, sampling procedure,research tools,process of data collection and limitations of the study.Similarly,chapter three deals with analysis and interpretation of data. This section is divided into analysis of domains of language use and attitudes of the participants towards the languages they speak. The responses obtained from the participants are coded and interpreted qualitatively.Finally, chapter four includes findings and recommendations based on analysis and interpretation of the study.