Hand Gestures and Language Learning

Dr. Delmar introduced our class to the influence of gestures as a crucial component in learning communication. She stressed the importance of nonverbal communication illustrated in the article, how our hands help us learn by Dr. Goldin-Meadow and Dr. Wagner. In this study, they investigated gesture-speech match and mismatch patterns. They conducted a study where two children explain why they believe the water amount changes between two containers. Child number one conveyed a speech and gesture match, saying identical speech and gesture cues in idea of conservation of water between two glasses. While child number two conveyed different speech and gesture, illustrating a “gesture-speech mismatch” (Goldin-Meadow et al.) between the width of each glass and presenting the idea of conservation of water. This illustrates that children that produced gesture and speech mismatches on a certain task can be more readily to learn, than those producing the gesture and speech matches. Their findings support that a mismatch in gesture and speech illustrates two important ideas, “one in gesture and another in speech” (Goldin-Meadow et al.). Importantly they concluded that even if the gesture and speech are incorrect, this can be more prone to lead to instability in cognitive thinking leading to change. Thus, it is relevant that gesture and speech mismatches elicit activation of two ideas simultaneously, with speech conveying one idea and gesture correlating to another.

A study that related to Dr. Delmar’s research is Body in Mind: How Gestures Empower Foreign Language Learning by Dr. Macedonia and Dr. Knösche. Their research investigated trace motor theory in language learning, where gestures enhance memory retrieval of language. They conducted a study with twenty German speaking participants trying to learn English. Each participant was randomly assigned to only audiovisual or audiovisual with gesture enactment conditions. Afterwards, they conducted numerous memory performance tests including “cued recall, matched free recall, and written tests” (Macedonia et al.) to test gesture memory learning of German to English words. They concluded like Dr. Goldin-Meadow’s study that learning through gesture leads to memory enhancement. Furthermore, their study highlights that gestures enhance memory cognition that can speed up memory language consolidation and allows insight into learning languages faster.

Both studies, how our hands help us learn by Dr. Goldin-Meadow et al. and Body in Mind: How Gestures Empower Foreign Language Learning by Dr. Macedonia et al. address the importance of gestures and learning. Dr. Macedonia’s research connects the importance of using hand gestures to learn foreign languages due to decaying slower and better memory storage. Similarly, Dr. Goldin-Meadow’s research supports hand gestures and mismatched speech helps learning behavior and memory consolidation. The conclusions from these studies suggest that gestures are a crucial component in teaching strategies and learning languages.

 

References

Goldin-Meadow S, Wagner SM. How our hands help us learn. Trends Cognitive Sciences. 2005 May;9(5):234-41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2005.03.006

Macedonia, M. and Knösche, T.R. (2011), Body in Mind: How Gestures Empower Foreign Language Learning. Mind, Brain, and Education, 5: 196-211. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-228X.2011.01129.x