Mastering vocabulary is a major part of language learning and a better understanding of the mental lexicon helps in the development of better instructional strategies. Understanding a word involves committing its form to memory, capturing its relationship with other words and finally knowing how and where to use it. WordNet, an online lexical database, based on psycholinguistic principles, is built around lexical and semantic relations which are cognitive universals, found in all languages. Such a lexicon can be a valuable aid in teaching language and a rich source of vocabulary.
In this project, the Hindi WordNet data will be remodelled to suit the school teaching and learning environment. The WordNet information will be displayed in a layered manner suitable for students of lower classes up to the higher level, each layer capturing the right level of abstraction. Definitions of words in the Hindi language will be simplified and grammatical features will be added as per school curriculum. The learning process will be aided with the help of pictures and audio pronunciations. Offering a single platform to teach and learn the language, it will also serve the purpose of both a dictionary and a thesaurus at the same time, with audio-visual input. This way of resource-assisted language learning will address the long standing need of the country of well-groomed youth who communicate well, express themselves aptly and foster better understanding in society. The project proposed here is a comprehensive language teaching aid with a structured focus on vocabulary and grammar.
Learning a language enables bridging of social barriers.