Thursday, March 3, 2022

More than just a gesture: Non-referential gesture in children's conversation and (haptic pronunciation) instruction

Interesting study, summarized on Technologynetwork.com, one pointing the way to potentially greater, systematic application of gesture in instruction: Children use non-referential gestures in narrative speech to mark discourse elements which update common ground, by Rohrer, Florit-Pons, Vilà-Giménez and Prieto of Pompeu Fabra University and the University of Girona. What they were looking at is the use of "nonreferential" gesture by children, ages 6 to 9. Specifically those gestures were not iconic (representing an object of image) or deictic ("pointing" in the direction of a referent), but were synchronized with the rhythm or stress patterning to mark information structure in narrative discourse. For example, (from the paper)

"A non-referential gesture would be to simply move the hands up and down rhythmically or raise the eyebrows and move the head. These movements do not express the specific meaning of the verbal content. They are often made by politicians during their speeches to emphasize important points."

These gestural discourse markers can have many functions but, in essence, the speakers are using the body to focus the listener's attention in some way. In KINETIK, haptic pronunciation teaching, in principle, a gesture can be mapped on to any rhythm group or phrase, providing structure (that is indication of word grouping) emphasis, expressiveness, greater clarity, or, additional multisensory connectedness to enhance memory. 

Nice piece, I think! ("And a little child shall lead them . . . ") Will be reporting on this research both at TESOL Arabia next week and the TESOL Convention, March 23rd! Join us then if you can!

Keep in touch!

Bill


Reference: Rohrer PL, Florit-Pons J, Vilà-Giménez I, Prieto P. Children use non-referential gestures in narrative speech to mark discourse elements which update common ground. Front. Psychol. 2022;12. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.661339