Gesture: Second Language Acquistion and Classroom Research(ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional Series)

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.

Table of Contents:
Contributors Preface I: INTRODUCTION TO GESTURE AND ITS L2 APPLICATIONS 1. Gesture Studies and Second Language Acquisition: A Review Gale Stam and Steven G. McCafferty 2. Nonverbal Communication and Second Language Classrooms: A Review Carla Chamberlin Quinlisk II: GESTURE AND MEANING MAKING IN THE L2 3. Material Foundations for Second Language Acquisition: Gesture, Metaphor, and Internalization Steven G. McCafferty 4. Embodiment as Self-Regulation in L2 Task Performance Elizabeth Platt and Frank B. Brooks 5. The Dialectics of Gesture in the Construction of Meaning in Second Language Oral Narratives Eduardo Negueruela and James P. Lantolf III: GESTURE AND COMMUNICATION IN THE L2 6. Gesturally Enhanced Repeats in The Repair Turn: Communication Strategy Or Cognitive Language-Learning Tool? David Olsher 7. Does Gesture Aid Discourse Comprehension in the L2? Tsuyoshi Kida 8. Language Learner and Native Speaker Perceptions of Japanese Refusal Gestures Portrayed in Video Nicholas O. Jungheim IV: GESTURE AND LINGUISTIC STRUCTURE IN THE L2 9. A Helping Hand? Gestures, L2 Learners, and Grammar Marianne Gullberg 10. Linguistic and Gestural Introduction of Ground Reference in L1 and L2 Narrative Keiko Yoshioka 11. What Gestures Reveal About Second Language Acquisition Gale Stam V: GESTURE AND THE L2 CLASSROOM 12. "Because Of Her Gesture, It’s Very Easy To Understand" – Learners’ Perceptions of Teachers’ Gestures in the Foreign Language Class Daniela Sime 13. Gesture and the Negotiation of Meaning in a Second Language Classroom Martine Faraco and Tsuyoshi Kida 14. Expository Discourse in a Second Language Classroom: How Learners Use Gesture Alexis Tabensky

About the Author :
McCafferty, Steven G.; Stam, Gale