The effects of teaching methods for raising ESL students’ awareness of gesture

Abstract

Research shows that gestures help L2 learners compensate for shortcomings in their second language, aid in the language learning process, and facilitate successful classroom communication between teachers and students . Despite this, there has been little research into whether L2 learners can benefit from classroom activities to raise their awareness of gesture use in a second language. The current study tests this hypothesis. An experimental group of 13 students and a control group of 10 students were recorded in pairs completing three separate tasks, received instruction on the tasks, and finally completed a second recording. The experimental group’s classroom activities included a focus on gesture, while the control group’s did not. Overall, compared to the control group, the experimental group gestured more frequently and expressively on the post-test. Moreover, students in the experimental group had a positive attitude towards the gesture awareness raising activities. The results of the study suggest that gesture awareness raising activities can improve L2 learners’ gesture use in a second language, offering implications for L2 learners, language instructors, and researchers.

Keywords:

• Gesture
• awareness-raising
• ESL
• second language learning
• foreign language pedagogy
• language awareness

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Jeannette Littlemore and Norma Gorham for their invaluable contributions to this paper, as well as the reviewers at Language Awareness for their insightful feedback on earlier drafts. In addition, this paper would not have been possible without the support of my students and colleagues at Arizona State University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amanda Hilliard

Amanda Hilliard received her MA in TEFL/TESL in 2011 and her PhD in Applied Linguistics in 2017 from the University of Birmingham, England. She has taught English abroad in South Korea, Vietnam, Ecuador, Tanzania, and Hungary, and in the U.S. in Georgia, Texas, and Arizona. Currently, she works as an ESL Instructor at Arizona State University.