Learning New Words Through Gestures

 

The article “Gesture helps learners learn, but not merely by guiding their visual attention” by Wakefield et al. Discusses the impact of teaching students with speech alone or speech and gesture combined to solve math equivalency problems. The study shows that not only is gesture and important aspect to learning but for the children guiding their visual attention to the problem and away from the instructor also played a part. They were able to follow the method of solving the problem while listening to the instructions presented.

            We often use gesture when we communicate which can be iconic (representing an object), metaphoric (to visualize abstract concepts), and deictic (to point toward at what is referenced). This can help us with communicating with each other and is often very beneficial. It can also be used in teaching students new concepts like the study mentioned above. However, it can also be used in vocabulary and language. In a recent article, Natalie Wexler discusses doing research at an elementary school for her new book and observing gestures implemented in teaching. Wexler summarizes that when a new word was being taught the teacher would use a gesture that the students would also mimic. For example, when learning the word layer, the teacher would have the students place both hands flat while one hovers over the other. Wexler states however, that this only works when the word or concept they are learning is brought up again over time in an engaging manner. In the students’ case they spent three weeks learning about rock formation where the word lay was brought up multiple times. And later in the year when learning about the rainforest the word came up and students still remembered the gesture.

            Another study at the university of Illinois co-led by psychology professor Kiel Christianson aimed to compare the comprehension of student learning new words in another language when it was either paired or not paired with a gesture. The study was comprised of 30 students whose first or native language was English and had no knowledge of the Mandarin language which to be used in the study. They introduced 18 new words divided in three categories, the word was paired with a commonly used gesture, a meaningless gesture, or no gesture. Only the instructor performed the gesture while the participants observed. Followed by a multiple-choice test to see if they could recall the meaning. Results show that the ability to recall the meaning was only 8-10 % better with the gestures than without. Christianson says that while it is not a big improvement, it shows that instructors could pair a new word with a previously meaningless gesture to help facilitate learning. He does advise to teach the new words in batches of no more than 10 words to give the students time to learn.

Forrest, S. (2019, January 30). Gestures help students learn new words in different languages, study finds. Phys.org. Retrieved October 14, 2022, from https://phys.org/news/2019-01-gestures-students-words-languages.html

Wakefield E, Novack MA, Congdon EL, Franconeri S ,Goldin-Meadow S. Gesture helps learners                 learn,but not merely by guiding their visual attention. Dev Sci. 2018;e12664.                                             https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12664

Wexler, N. (2022, July 12). How gestures can help students learn. Forbes. Retrieved October 14, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliewexler/2022/07/07/how-gestures-can-help-students-learn/?sh=e23ee1a38b3d