Gesture And Multimodality In Second Language Acquisition

This timely text offers a how-to guide for analyzing gesture and multimodality in second language learning and teaching. Expert contributors from around the world outline the theoretical basis for each topic and offer clear descriptions of data collection and analysis methods for classroom, naturalistic, quasi-experimental, and experimental settings. The book further offers a rich array of ancillary pedagogical material and points out areas ripe for future study. This will be an invaluable resource for undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and researchers of applied linguistics, communications, education, and psychology interested in gesture studies and multimodality in L2 learning and teaching.

This book is a result of the growing number of insights found in recent research on gesture studies and language acquisition, which have renewed the attention of scholars in gesture functions and meanings in communication and language learning. Observation of the participation of both gesture and speech in the formulation of meaning has revealed that communication is typically multimodal. This perspective has produced engrossing research questions, particularly in contexts where the combination of languages and cultures is complex and diversified. Competence in multiple languages and in different semiotic systems inevitably impacts the way in which people interact and learn languages. Given its status as a country of immigration, Canada provides such a context for this study. This book discusses the changes that the literature on gesture studies can help implement in current practices of language pedagogy. By including gesture as a nonverbal dimension of language and as a means for language acquisition, it provides a contrast to those traditions that have viewed gesture as a marginal aspect of communication and language learning. In addition, this book offers the results of three research studies in Italian language classes in Canada, showing that gesture enables a multimodal approach in language pedagogy and a richer experience for both teachers and learners.

This book demonstrates the vital connection between language and gesture, and why it is critical for research on second language acquisition to take into account the full spectrum of communicative phenomena. The study of gesture in applied linguistics is just beginning to come of age. This edited volume, the first of its kind, covers a broad range of concerns that are central to the field of SLA. The chapters focus on a variety of second-language contexts, including adult classroom and naturalistic learners, and represent learners from a variety of language and cultural backgrounds. Gesture: Second Language Acquisition and Classroom Research is organized in five sections: Part I, Gesture and its L2 Applications, provides both an overview of gesture studies and a review of the L2 gesture research. Part II, Gesture and Making Meaning in the L2, offers three studies that all take an explicitly sociocultural view of the role of gesture in SLA. Part III, Gesture and Communication in the L2, focuses on the use and comprehension of gesture as an aspect of communication. Part IV, Gesture and Linguistic Structure in the L2, addresses the relationship between gesture and the acquisition of linguistic features, and how gesture relates to proficiency. Part V, Gesture and the L2 Classroom, considers teachers’ gestures, students’ gestures, and how students’ interpret teachers’ gestures. Although there is a large body of research on gesture across a number of disciplines including anthropology, communications, psychology, sociology, and child development, to date there has been comparatively little investigation of gesture within applied linguistics. This volume provides readers unfamiliar with L2 gesture studies with a powerful new lens with which to view many aspects of language in use, language learning, and language teaching.

This timely text offers a how-to guide for analyzing gesture and multimodality in second language learning and teaching. Expert contributors from around the world outline the theoretical basis for each topic and offer clear descriptions of data collection and analysis methods for classroom, naturalistic, quasi-experimental, and experimental settings. The book further offers a rich array of ancillary pedagogical material and points out areas ripe for future study. This will be an invaluable resource for undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and researchers of applied linguistics, communications, education, and psychology interested in gesture studies and multimodality in L2 learning and teaching.

This collection highlights diverse epistemological perspectives in original research on the important role of multimodality in second language contexts. The volume explores a wide range of theoretical and methodological traditions toward foregrounding the notion that bodily action is not merely an add-on to the modality of talk but an integral part of second language teaching, learning, and interaction. Following an introductory chapter, 18 empirical chapters feature either classroom or non-classroom research, which shed light on different dimensions of multimodality in second language contexts, including learning reflected in gesture, learning gesture across languages, the role of bodily action in language teaching, and the role of movement in configuring space for effective communication. Each empirical chapter follows a consistent structure detailing the research focus, the background to each study, methodology, and findings. A concluding synthesis chapter braids the insights of these chapters, drawing parallels across different methods, and pointing toward crosscutting areas for future research. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in applied linguistics, multilingualism, bilingualism, gesture studies, cognitive science, and psychology. Chapter 10 of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access at www.taylorfrancis.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC-BY-NC-SA) 4.0 International license.

This book demonstrates the vital connection between language and gesture, and why it is critical for research on second language acquisition to take into account the full spectrum of communicative phenomena. The study of gesture in applied linguistics is just beginning to come of age. This edited volume, the first of its kind, covers a broad range of concerns that are central to the field of SLA. The chapters focus on a variety of second-language contexts, including adult classroom and naturalistic learners, and represent learners from a variety of language and cultural backgrounds. Gesture: Second Language Acquisition and Classroom Research is organized in five sections: Part I, Gesture and its L2 Applications, provides both an overview of gesture studies and a review of the L2 gesture research. Part II, Gesture and Making Meaning in the L2, offers three studies that all take an explicitly sociocultural view of the role of gesture in SLA. Part III, Gesture and Communication in the L2, focuses on the use and comprehension of gesture as an aspect of communication. Part IV, Gesture and Linguistic Structure in the L2, addresses the relationship between gesture and the acquisition of linguistic features, and how gesture relates to proficiency. Part V, Gesture and the L2 Classroom, considers teachers' gestures, students' gestures, and how students' interpret teachers' gestures. Although there is a large body of research on gesture across a number of disciplines including anthropology, communications, psychology, sociology, and child development, to date there has been comparatively little investigation of gesture within applied linguistics. This volume provides readers unfamiliar with L2 gesture studies with a powerful new lens with which to view many aspects of language in use, language learning, and language teaching.

Brings together studies from language acquisition and developmental psychology. This title addresses topics such as: gesture use in prelinguistic infants with a focus on pointing, the relationship between gestures and lexical development in typically developing and deaf children and even how gesture can help to learn mathematics

Through constant exposure to adult input in interaction, children’s language gradually develops into rich linguistic constructions containing multiple cross-modal elements subtly used together for communicative functions. Sensorimotor schemas provide the "grounding" of language in experience and lead to children’s access to the symbolic function. With the emergence of vocal or signed productions, gestures do not disappear but remain functional and diversify in form and function as children become skilled adult multimodal conversationalists. This volume examines the role of gesture over the human lifespan in its complex interaction with speech and sign. Gesture is explored in the different stages before, during, and after language has fully developed and a special focus is placed on the role of gesture in language learning and cognitive development. Specific chapters are devoted to the use of gesture in atypical populations. CONTENTS Contributors Aliyah Morgenstern and Susan Goldin-Meadow 1 Introduction to Gesture in Language Part I: An Emblematic Gesture: Pointing Kensy Cooperrider and Kate Mesh 2 Pointing in Gesture and Sign Aliyah Morgenstern 3 Early Pointing Gestures Part II: Gesture Before Speech Meredith L. Rowe, Ran Wei, and Virginia C. Salo 4 Early Gesture Predicts Later Language Development Olga Capirci, Maria Cristina Caselli, and Virginia Volterra 5 Interaction Among Modalities and Within Development Part III: Gesture With Speech During Language Learning Eve V. Clark and Barbara F. Kelly 6 Constructing a System of Communication With Gestures and Words Pauline Beaupoil-Hourdel 7 Embodying Language Complexity: Co-Speech Gestures Between Age 3 and 4 Casey Hall, Elizabeth Wakefield, and Susan Goldin-Meadow 8 Gesture Can Facilitate Children’s Learning and Generalization of Verbs Part IV: Gesture After Speech Is Mastered Jean-Marc Colletta 9 On the Codevelopment of Gesture and Monologic Discourse in Children Susan Wagner Cook 10 Understanding How Gestures Are Produced and Perceived Tilbe Göksun, Demet Özer, and Seda AkbIyık 11 Gesture in the Aging Brain Part V: Gesture With More Than One Language Elena Nicoladis and Lisa Smithson 12 Gesture in Bilingual Language Acquisition Marianne Gullberg 13 Bimodal Convergence: How Languages Interact in Multicompetent Language Users’ Speech and Gestures Gale Stam and Marion Tellier 14 Gesture Helps Second and Foreign Language Learning and Teaching Aliyah Morgenstern and Susan Goldin-Meadow Afterword: Gesture as Part of Language or Partner to Language Across the Lifespan Index About the Editors