t2206 Inleacting bodes : How do teacher's gestures help young chlerenin second language acquisition ? Gens t presentation Scientific Committee f credits Conference proceedings Conference archives HOW DO TEACHER'S GESTURES HELP YOUNG CHILDREN IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ? Tellier Marion Université Paris 7, UFR Linguistique, Laboratoire ARP. ‘mariontelier@yahioo.com Abstract ‘This artcle aims to discus whatwe know aboutthe Impact of gestures on memorisation of items. ‘There have been few studies on that subject so far.|am specifically working on the impact of teaching gestures (very iconic movements used by teachers in classroom, especially n second language teaching) on young children (aged 6 years old). This aricle describes an experimentin which young subjects had to memoriso words in L1. Thesas words were heard on a video and wore illustrated by gestures. Soma ofthe chldran usta to look atthe gestures and repeat the words heard, others had also to reproduce the gestures they saw. Resulls show that ina tree recall task, children who have reproduced the gestures memorise better than those who only looked at them and than those of he control group. These resulls concer short lerm mamorisation ‘of Lt words aut will lp us lo conduct furher experiments on long term memorisation of L2 lexical Key-Words aching gestures, foreign language teaching, lexicon, memorisation, children In te second language classroom, teachers behave in a specif way the way they speak and the way they gesture are altered by the classroom situation. They slow down thelr speech, and they intensily the atticulation of every word and ofthe prosodle parameters to make sute thatthe ‘students wll understand them beter. For the eame reason, they use helping gestures, We are not dealing here with typical everyday communicative gestures bul with speci ones, which have to be clear and unambiguous in ordar to helo the students understand the verbal inputthe gastures illustrate. Ths is partcularty true when teaching to young children. Official and scientific txts dealing witn the teaching of oreign languages to children advise teachers fo use gestures fo illustrate their speech ar thus to improve the children's understanding and memorisation of th {foreign language. Thisis given as an affrmation and itappeared fous that nobody has ever ried to assess how much the leacher's gestures could help young children understand and memorize ‘he foreign language lexicon. Therefore, the past few years we have been tying foro elaborate diferent methods and experiments aimed at assessing te impact of tacher's gestures on the learning process. We have frst worked on their impact on the understanding oflanguage (Teli, 2004, 2005b, and to be publishes) and we are currently analyzing the eect of gestures on the process of short term memarisation. The following aricle will present an experiment conducted on ‘his latest premise. 1, THEORETICAL BASIS 1. What is a teaching gesture ? Inthe field of second language teaching, a teaching gesture is, as we have already stated, diferent from everyday communicative gesture. The reason is tha, in ordinary communication, ‘gestures and words work together, and one relies on the other to have meaning ;in short, they are ‘complementary. In usual communication, where all the parbeipants have the eame level offuency in fe vehicular language, speakers produce gestures rather unconsciously o help thom structure their tought and organize thelr discourse, But this is nat the case in foreign language teaching, because the partpants do not share the same level of uency in he targetlanguage on the one hand we have the teacher who has great command of the language, and on the other hand we have learners who understand more or less whal is bing said. When the learners are beginners andior enilren, the linguistc relaionshipis highly asymmetric. Thus, gestures are what the learners rely onto understand what the teacher says. This means that te gestures need fo convey ‘enough meaning o be understood alone (without verbal language), and have to help one to infer the meaning of fe words they are associated with, We, therefore, believe nat leaching gestures hitpiigesturetyon2005.ers-yon article php87i_atclo=253 16t2206 Inleacting bodes : How do teacher's gestures help young chlerenin second language acquisition ? ‘are produced more consciously than usual communicative gestures and thatthey are specifically ‘addressed tothe learners. We have listed diferent ypes of teaching gestures which appear in ciass and we have discovered that hey serve various funelion. So far we have found three main roles for teaching gestures management of the class (lo sariend an activity, question students, request silence, et), ‘evaluation (lo show a mistake, correct congratulate, et), ané explanation (give indication on syntax, underline specie prosody, explain new vocabulary, el). n our study, we are particularly interested in te gestures which occur in te process of explaining new or unknown vocabulary. ‘They appearin various shapes : hand gestures, facial expressions, pantomime, body movements, ‘atc, Thay can eitver mime or symbolize something and they rly help the learners to iter the meaning af he verbal, providing that hey are unambiguous and easy to understand (Teller, 2004, 20056, and to be published). However, teaching gestures do not only help in the process of understanding. We can indeed ‘suppose that they have an impact on the memorsation of tho vacabular. Therefor, in the following study we will ty to assess the impactof these gestures on the memorisaton of words. 2.2. Previous work on the impact of gestures on memorisation We have specicalyreliad on the fllowing studies to elaborate the present experiment ‘The first experimentis one elaborated by Cohen and Otterbein (1992). They worked with three {groups of adult subjects. The subjects had fo watch a video containing several diferent sentences, then wite down as many sentences as they could remember. Each group had the same sentences out he videos were slighty diferent: one just exposed the sentences, another one showed someboay illustrating each sentence with ilusvatvelpantomimic gestures and in the las ‘one, sentences were also accompanied with gestures but ey were non-pantomimic. Cohen and Otterbein wanted fo assess what modality would help the subjects remember the greatest number ‘of wores, Tne illustrative gestures proved tobe the most significant helping modalty in short term memorisation, Linda Quinn Allen (1895) explored the same objective but nthe field of second language learning. She worked with 112 university students in French. A non-treatment group and a ‘comparison group were shown 10 French sentences and their English equivalenton a scx they also heard a teacher pranouncing them 3 times. They were told o repeal them. The ‘experimental group's procecure cifered only in that the students wore also provided with an illustrative gesture for each sentence, which they saw three tas (withthe three repatitons of the sentence) and had to reproduce. However, they did nol repeal te sentences, only te gestures. ‘Then, immediately air all 10 sequences, a postiestwas given :the teacher said the 10 French sentences in a different order and during the pause after each sentence the subjects had to write «down the English equivalent. The comparison group and the experimental group were given the ‘gestures as well. Tere were 5 sessions ofthis kind with diferent groups of 10 French ‘expressions. The analysis of the results shows thatthe students presented with ilustratve {gestures recalled more sentences than the others. Te experimental group who reproduced the ‘gestures did better than the comparison group who just saw them during te postest. mand Both experiments dealt with adult subjects. In our study on second language teaching to young children and the role of teaching gestures in lexical memorsation, seemed interesting to ‘elaborate similar experiments with younger subjects. Ou frst work in this leld (Teller, 200Sa) was with 22 children age 5 who were divided into 2 groups (contol and experiment) and had to watch 53 videos which contained alist of 10 wards each. The words were in French, tre subjects’ mother tongue, for we did natwantto work with foreign language yet. The children watched the video individually and had to doa tree recall task immediately after. The three videos watched by the ‘contol group only presented ther with words pronounced by a person on the film. The first video watched by he experiment group was the same as tne contol group, the second video was ilusrated with gestures and the third had pictures to lustrate the words pronounced. The ‘experiment group had significant better results with video 2 and 3. This enabled us o infer hat the Use of visual modalities improved short term memarisaton. In this arclo we wil sil work on shortterm memorisation in a free recall task. We wil tus deal With the notion of mnemonic span (Milner, 1956 ; Baddeley, 1990) which refers to the quantiy of items a subject can memorize rom a ist. The average score is 7 Items plusiminus 2 for an adult butis less important for children age 6, which we have assessed around 3 (Teller, 2005a) and Which is likely to grow with age and cognitive development. Also, inthe present study, we will nat deal wih foreign language. Since we were interested in ‘shot term memory, we did nat teach new wards ta children but worked an words they are familiar with in their mother tongue. Thus, we willbe able to assess te real effect of gostures. 2. METHOD 2.1. Design hitpiigesturetyon2005.ers-yon article php87i_atclo=253 28t2206 Inleacting bodies : How do teacher's gestures help young chlerenin second language acquisition ? ‘The experiment was a 3 x3 x 4 factorial design. There were 3 groups : contol, comparison and experiment. Tey were working on 3 different videos named Video 1, Video 2 and Video 26. ‘There were 4 diferent tasks involved : listen an recall, repeat words and recall, view gestures then repeat words and rocall, and finally, roproduce gestures and ropoat words then recall . Sample Forty-two (42) French childeen fram the same echool were involved inthe experiment. The age mean was 5 years 8 months old, andthe range was 5 yoars 3 montis old o 6 years 3 months old Thay were divided into 3 groups of 14 children for the purpose of the experiment: a contol group, ‘a comparison group and an experiment group. 2.3. Materials ‘Two 2) lists of 10 French words were elaborated. They were designed for children, based on ‘everyday vocabulary. They were bullton the same pattem :a ult an aspect, a drink, a schoo! tool laplace, an animal ec. They were recorded on video tape. For Video 1. a person pronounced ‘every word with an interval of seconds between words. For Video 2, there were two versions ‘one was like video 1 (tobe watched by the control group) and the other was illustrated with ‘gestures and which we will call Video 2G. The person on the video did an illustrate gesture for ‘each word. The gesture sight preceded the pronunciation of te word so thatthe children would focus on the gesture frst. Te videos assigned for each group are presentin Table 1, below. FS Tab. 1: Videos assigned for each group 2.4, Procedure ‘The subjects wore tested incividually ina quietroom of ie school, The children satin frontofa TV setand the experimenter sata bit apart: not too close tothe child to avoid disturbing hisher ‘concentration, and not to far to avoid formal almosphere and to prevent the child from moving hisiher chairto get closer to the experimenter. The sessions were also recorded with a video ‘camera placed nextto the TV set. To avoid problems of fatigue and weariness, we did two sessions - one for each video. The second ‘session was done a week ater the fist one. ‘The children were introduced to the experiments a game o play. Atthe beginning of each session, the memory task was explained and children were given time fo practice with another and shorter word isto make sure they understood the nature ofhe fask. The task depended on the ‘group the children were in andthe video they were working with (1 or 2). In the frst session, with Video 1, the children of the control group were fold to listen to the list of \words and then recall as many items as they could and ina fre order. The other groups were told to repeat each word inthe 2 seconds blank between each Kom ane then proceed to fee rocall of thelist. In te second session, the children ofthe control group had to repeat the words of Video 2 the same way the other groups did with Video 1. The comparison group had to repeat the words and look atthe gestures that were shown with them. However we dié not want them ta imate the {gastures. We did notwant otell them "Dont reproduce the gestures" for we thoughtit might ‘confuse them, so we placed a small teddy bear theirhands which they were fold to hold. Thus their hands were busy and they were nat lempted to gesture. As far]as the experiment group was ‘concerned, subjects were asked fo reproduce fe gestures and repeat he words after fre person ‘on the video, in short imitate her. ‘The following table (Tab 2) sums up the various tasks for each group and each video FS Tab, 2: Tasks assigned for each group 2.5. Research questions In afee recall memory tack, based on a lst of 10 words heard once, what conditions can improve the numberof words recalled by children aged 5? oss the repetition of words improve the numberof items recalled ? oes the repetition of words associated withthe visualization ofan ilustative gesture improve the number of tems recalled ? hitpiigesturetyon2005.ers-yon article php87i_atclo=253t2206 Inleacting bodies : How do teacher's gestures help young chlerenin second language acquisition ? oes the repetition of words associated withthe reproduction of ilustrative gestures improve the number of tems recalled ? What impact can these results have on second language teaching to young children ? 3. ANALYSIS AND RESULTS 3.1. Does the repetition of words improve the number of items recalled ? For the task of Video 1, the mean of words recalled by the contol group was 2.786 ;itwas 2.923 for the comparison group ; and 3 for the experiment group. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed thatthe repetiion had no signifcant efect on the short term memorisation of words F(2,39) = 144, 9<.05, even ifthe means af the lasts two groups seem higher For the task of Video 2, the control group who justhad to repeat words heard on the video recaled a mean of 3071 words which is very close to the means the other groups obtained in he same ‘condition with Video 1, We may thus infor thatthe dificult of both word lists was similar, 3.2, Does the repetition of words associated with the visualization of an illustrative gesture improve the number of items recalled 7 For Video 2, the comparison group visualized an ilustrative gesture with each word they heard and had to repeat this word. They recalled 3.357 words. Did the factof seeing the gestures help to improve memorisaton ? Impaired Utest comparing the number of words recalled by the conto! group (3.071) and the ‘comparison group (2.387) revealed thatthe visualization of gestures had no significant effect on short term memonsation :1(26)=- 702 with p< 4889, ‘This results clearly diferent fom what we found in @ previous research (Taller 2005a) in which children who had seen gestures did signifcantl better than those wno did not. However we may ‘explain this phenomenon by the fact thatthe task was not exactly the same since the children in ‘he previous experiment did nat nave to repeat the words, we may infer hatin tre present ‘experiment the children's attention might have been caught more by the repetition tran by the ‘gesture, We will come back to that question later on. n of 3.3, Does the repetition of words associated with the reprodu: illustrative gestures improve the number of items racalled ? For Video 2, the experimental group had to repeat he words and reproduce the gestures seen on screen. Did the reproduction of gestures enable these children to memorize more words than ‘hose of he two other groups ? The contol group recalled a mean of 3.071 words, the comparison ‘0up : 3.387 words and tho exporimont group 4.143 words. Impaired ttest comparing the number of words recalled by the contol graup and the experiment ‘group revealed that the reproduction of gestures had significant effect on short term memerisalion (25}- 2.972 with pe0073, Impaired {test comparing the number of words recalled by the comparison group and the ‘experimental group also revealed that he reproduction of gestures had significant effect on short {erm memorisation :(28)=-2:317 with pe 0286, 3.4. Impact these results can have on second language teaching to young children. ‘This experiment only involved children memorizing words in ther first language and on a short {erm memorisation basis so one might think ican Rave litle to do with second language ‘acquisiion. However we think that reproducing gestures enables children fo improve memorisation in their mother tongue, it wil probably have an impact on the memorisaton of second language lexicon. Moreover, short term memorisation was analyzed in this experiment but \We may infer that reproducing gestures may help for long term memorisation as well Our next stop willbe to experimentthe impact of gestures on the leaming of foreign language words that means work on Both an unknown language and long term memory. ‘Also, we have noticed thatthe repetition of words did not really contbute to improve mamorisaion. On tha conirary, compared tothe reulls we had obiainad inthe previous ‘experiment which did rot imply repeating, it seems thal ne repetition of words has weakened the process of shart term memarisation. appeared fous that when the children repeated the words of {he lst ater the person on the video, they did itina very mechanie and passive way. Whereas in ‘he previous experiment where they had to remain stent during the listening task, we can assume hitpiigesturetyon2005.ers-yon article php87i_atclo=253t2206 Inleacting bodes : How do teacher's gestures help young chlerenin second language acquisition ? that they did a mental repetition of words in order to remember as many as they could. In shot, their stoning was more acive and concentration was strengtnened. The fact nat they had to repeat the words out loud in the present experiment kiled in a way the mental repetiion and the concontration. Nevorthaless, te reproduction of gostufos had the reverse effect: momorisaton significantly improved. We can suppose that having to reproduce a gesture implied more attention {ote visualization of gestures and to the tems, and the repetition became more active. 4. CONCLUSION We, therefore, assume thatthe use of teacher's gestures in the leaming of foreign vocabulary can have an effecton memorisation ; uta make the most ofthis effect, teachers should make sure ‘hal the children reproduce the gestures while repeating the words. Thus, they wil be more active in tir repetition and reinforce ils trace in memory. Also, the three ways of learning will be solicited: aucitory modality will be provided by the teacher's voice and the repetition, visual ‘modality wll be exposed through the visualization of gestures, and kinesthete modality wll ‘appear thanks tothe reproduction of gestures. All this wil enable every child to make the most of ‘he tree modalities proposed to reinforce their memorisation. We consider important that te impact of gestures in second language acquisition should be promoted in teachers vaining. Reflecion on gestures and second language learning as well as ‘development of aching gesture techniques should be par of teacher's taining so that the malofty of gestures can be made by learners, especially young ones. Bibliography Baddeley, A. (1990). Human memory, theory and practice. East Sussex: Lawrence Erlbaum ‘Associates Lid, Publishers, Cohen, RL, & Otlerbein, N.(1982). The mnemonic efect of speech gestures : Pantomimic and non-pantomimic gestures compared. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 4(2), 113-138, MeNeillD. (1982), Hand and mind : What gestures rovea! about thought. Chicago : The University ‘of Chicago Press. Miller, GA. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two : Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63, 81-97. Quinn Allon, L, (1895). The effects of emblematic gestures on the development anc access of mental represeniations of French expressions. The Modem Language Journal, 79, 521-529 ‘ollier M, (2004). Limpact du geste dans fa comoréhension dune langue étrangare. Conference Poceedings . Fail parler pour apprendre ? Dialogues, verbalisation et apprenssages en situation do travail a Pécole + acquis of quostons vives (proceedings on CD-Rom). IUFM Nord Pas- de-Calais, Aras, ‘ellie, M. (2005), Lutlisation des gestes en classe de langue : comment évaluer leur effet sur la mémorisaion du lexique ? In Slee, P. Gaillard, N.Spanghero-Gaillara (Eds.), Actes du Colloque International de Didactique Cognitive, DidCog 2005 (praceedings on CD-Rom), ‘Toulouse, 26-28 Janary, 2008. ‘elierM, (2005p), Lutlisaton des prototypes gestuels comme support pourla compréhension en langue étangére, Actes du Colloque international en Sciences du Langage : Acquisition, Pratques Langagiéros, inoractions ot Contacts (APLIC) (oreceedings on CD-Rom), Université Paris Il, Pars, 25-26 June, 2004, Tolle, M. (tobe published). Les gastos du récit on langue étrangéra : quel offet sur la ‘comaréhension ? Actes du Colloque Intemational :Enjaux dune sensibiisation tes précoce (de 2 27-8 ans) aux langues étrangéres en milou Instuionne!, Université de Nantes 2-5 June, 2004 ‘Acknowledgements :! would lke to thank Mrs. Roselyne Teller, headmaster of Pauline Kergomard Kindergarten as well as Mrs. Forise Bogat and Mrs. Joslle Bailly for ther collaboration in Bis experment Also, a warm thanks to all he children of his school who have always gladly partspated inthis experimen itpsigesturetyon2005.ers-yon lartcl,php37i_atclo=253