Handling language: The gestures of future foreign language teachers (original) (raw)

Cross-linguistic Views of Gesture Usage

Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics

People have stereotypes about gesture usage. For instance, speakers in East Asia are not supposed to gesticulate, and it is believed that Italians gesticulate more than the British. Despite the prevalence of such views, studies that investigate these stereotypes are scarce. The present study examined people's views on spontaneous gestures by collecting data from five different countries. A total of 363 undergraduate students from five countries (France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and USA) participated in this study. Data were collected through a two-part questionnaire. Part 1 asked participants to rate two characteristics of gesture: frequency and size of gesture for 13 different languages. Part 2 asked them about their views on factors that might affect the production of gestures. The results showed that most participants in this study believe that Italian, Spanish, and American English speakers produce larger gestures more frequently than other language speakers. They also ...

Gestures in Second Language ( L 2 ) Acquisition And in Classroom Talk

2012

This paper examines two types of gestures that are used with speech in teacher and students’ utterances in classroom talk. Conversation analysis (CA) is employed to inform the analysis of the teacher’s and students’ use of gestures. Following Kendon’s (2004) classification, we documented the frequency and context of two types of gestures: Type 1, which are gestures matching the meaning of the words being spoken and Type 2, which are gestures extending the meaning of the words being spoken. Comparison between gestures used in the classroom talk and in everyday conversation is also presented to explore how frequently both types of gestures are functioning in these two settings. Introduction Within the language classroom, there are often times when learners and teachers alike have a difficult time articulating what it is they are trying to say or explain. For learners, this difficulty may be increased by language limitations. The ultimate goal for learners is to be able to understand a...

Gesture's Role in Speaking, Learning, and Creating Language

Annual Review of Psychology, 2013

When speakers talk, they gesture. The goal of this review is to investigate the contribution that these gestures make to how we communicate and think. Gesture can play a role in communication and thought at many timespans. We explore, in turn, gesture's contribution to how language is produced and understood in the moment; its contribution to how we learn language and other cognitive skills; and its contribution to how language is created over generations, over childhood, and on the spot. We find that the gestures speakers produce when they talk are integral to communication and can be harnessed in a number of ways. (a) Gesture reflects speakers' thoughts, often their unspoken thoughts, and thus can serve as a window onto cognition. Encouraging speakers to gesture can thus provide another route for teachers, clinicians, interviewers, etc., to better understand their communication partners. (b) Gesture can change speakers' thoughts. Encouraging gesture thus has the potential to change how students, patients, witnesses, etc., think about a problem and, as a result, alter the course of learning, therapy, or an interchange. (c) Gesture provides building blocks that can be used to construct a language. By watching how children and adults who do not already have a language put those blocks together, we can observe the process of language creation. Our hands are with us at all times and thus provide researchers and learners with an ever-present tool for understanding how we talk and think.

Some reasons for studying gesture and second language acquisition (Hommage à Adam Kendon

Iral-international Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 2006

This paper outlines some reasons for why gestures are relevant to the study of SLA. First, given cross-cultural and cross-linguistic gestural repertoires, gestures can be treated as part of what learners can acquire in a target language. Gestures can therefore be studied as a developing system in their own right both in L2 production and comprehension. Second, because of the close link between gestures, language, and speech, learners’ gestures as deployed in L2 usage and interaction can offer valuable insights into the processes of acquisition, such as the handling of expressive difficulties, the influence of the first language, interlanguage phenomena, and possibly even into planning and processing difficulties. As a form of input to learners and to their interlocutors alike, finally, gestures also play a potential role for comprehension and learning.

Gestures in Language Development by GULLBERG, MARIANNE, & KEES DE BOT

The Modern Language Journal, 2012

The MLJ reviews books, monographs, computer software, and materials that (a) present results of research in-and methods of-foreign and second language teaching and learning; (b) are devoted to matters of general interest to members of the profession; (c) are intended primarily for use as textbooks or instructional aids in classrooms where foreign and second languages, literatures, and cultures are taught; and (d) convey information from other disciplines that relates directly to foreign and second language teaching and learning. Reviews not solicited by the MLJ can neither be accepted nor returned. Books and materials that are not reviewed in the MLJ cannot be returned to the publisher. Responses should be typed with double spacing and submitted electronically online at our ScholarOne Manuscripts address: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mlj.