Gestures and some key issues in the study of language development

Abstract

The purpose of the current paper is to outline how gestures can contribute to the study of some key issues in language development. Specifically, we (1) briefly summarise what is already known about gesture in the domains of first and second language development, and development or changes over the life span more generally; (2) highlight theoretical and empirical issues in these domains where gestures can contribute in important ways to further our understanding; and (3) summarise some common themes in all strands of research on language development that could be the target of concentrated research efforts.

TOT phenomena: Gesture production in younger and older adults.

“…Some previous researchers have suggested this is due to either a decreased involvement of visual imagery and/or physical changes (Cohen & Borsoi, 1996;Gullberg et al, 2008), however this cannot be the case in the present study because of the task differences. Older adults used more iconic gestures than the younger adults in the naming task.…”

“…Although the relationship between gestures and aging is not well documented, and there is no evidence about co-TOT gesture specifically, there is some evidence to suggest that older adults use less iconic gesture (Cohen & Borsoi, 1996;Feyereisen & Harvard, 1999). This may be due to a reduced use of visual imagery, general decline in physical activity, and/or decreased flexibility and control of the small movements required for gestures (Cohen & Borsoi, 1996;Feyereisen & Havard, 1999;Gullberg, de Bot, & Volterra, 2008).…”

A Comparative Study on Representational Gestures in Italian and Japanese Children

“…Cross-cultural observational studies, conducted so far on a restricted number of participants, suggest that all children, regardless of their primary linguistic input, use gestures together with speech during early stages of linguistic development (for a recent review Gullberg et al 2008). Furthermore, several studies provide clear evidence that gestures do not disappear in children's communication with the development of spoken language and have reported an increase in the use of gestures with age and linguistic competence growth, especially within spontaneous interaction (Mayberry and Nicoladis 2000) retelling of narratives (Colletta 2004;McNeill 2005), and tasks that require providing explanations or problem-solving (e.g., Goldin-Meadow and Singer 2003; Pine et al 2004).…”

Zulu oral narrative development from a speech and gesture perspective

“…Most studies investigate on early language acquisition (0 -4 years) and there is a dearth of information on what happens to Bantu-speaking children during late language acquisition (5 -16 years). Whilst current studies bring important findings on language acquisition, there is the rather narrow focus on phonological, syntactic, lexical, and semantic aspects at the word or sentential level and little focus on higher language processes such as conversational abilities, discourse and the multimodal interaction of different aspects of communication (Gullberg, de Bot & Volterra, 2010). The multimodal nature (linguistic and gesture) of speech is a scientific domain gaining in recognition in several fields including, psycholinguistics, speech therapy, psychology, to name a few.…”