GESTURES AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Abstract

When we speak, we regularly gesture as an integral part of communicating. For example, my colleague just explained how her husband backed into another car this morning (she banged her right fist against her flat left hand). One of the hubcaps came off at the impact and disappeared off down the lane (her right hand traced a circling trajectory off to the right). Throughout, she used two modes of expression to convey meaningful elements of the visual scene described: speech and gesture. This chapter presents an overview of why gestures like these are relevant to the cognitive linguistics of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and, specifically, what gestures can tell us about the processes of SLA. The chapter focuses on two key aspects: (a) gestures and the developing language system and (b) gestures and learning. It further discusses some implications of an expanded view of language acquisition that takes gestures into account.

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