Assam: IIT-Guwahati research sheds light on bilingualism, cultural cues in non-western contexts

GUWAHATI: In a new study, the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT-G) has gained valuable insights into how bilingual comprehension is influenced by cultural cues in non-western, non-immigrant communities. Their study highlights the different types of bilingualisms and socio-cultural and interactional context, suggesting the importance of taking various factors into consideration while studying bilingualism.

The study focuses on how cultural cues affect the translation process between first and second languages across different age groups. The findings have been published in the prestigious journal “Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics,” published by Mouton De Gruyter and co-authored by Professor Bidisha Som and her research scholar, Dr. Opangienla Kechu, from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Guwahati, along with professors Luis Benites and Rocío Maehara from Universidad del Pacífico, Lima, Perú.

Highlighting the significance of the research, Professor Bidisha Som stated, “This research has significant implications for fields like education, healthcare, and customer service, where multilingual communication is common. By understanding how cultural familiarity or mismatch influences comprehension, educators can design more effective bilingual programmes tailored to students’ backgrounds.”

In the study, participants completed a task where they identified whether word pairs from the Rongmei and Meitei languages were correct translations. Before seeing the second word, they were shown cartoon images of individuals dressed in traditional Rongmei or Meitei attire, or neutral outfits such as jeans and t-shirts. The study utilized E-Prime 3.0 software to measure the speed and accuracy of participants’ responses.

The aim was to investigate whether cultural cues influenced performance in a translation word recognition task and whether factors like age, living conditions, or translation direction affected the results. Interestingly, the study found the effect of cultural cues despite the cultural and geographical proximity of the two communities studied, stated a press release.

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