Learning Foreign Language Vocabulary with Gestures and Pictures Enhances Vocabulary Memory for Several Months Post-Learning in Eight-Year-Old School Children

Abstract

The integration of gestures and pictures into pedagogy has demonstrated potential for improving adults’ learning of foreign language (L2) vocabulary. However, the relative benefits of gestures and pictures on children’s L2 vocabulary learning have not been formally evaluated. In three experiments, we investigated the effects of gesture-based and picture-based learning on 8-year-old primary school children’s acquisition of novel L2 vocabulary. In each experiment, German children were trained over 5 consecutive days on auditorily presented, concrete and abstract, English vocabulary. In Experiments 1 and 2, gesture enrichment (auditorily presented L2 words accompanied with self-performed gestures) was compared with a non-enriched baseline condition. In Experiment 3, gesture enrichment was compared with picture enrichment (auditorily presented words accompanied with pictures). Children performed vocabulary recall and translation tests at 3 days, 2 months, and 6 months post-learning. Both gesture and picture enrichment enhanced children’s test performance compared with non-enriched learning. Benefits of gesture and picture enrichment persisted up to 6 months after training and occurred for both concrete and abstract words. Gesture-enriched learning was hypothesized to boost learning outcomes more than picture-enriched learning on the basis of previous findings in adults. Unexpectedly, however, we observed similar benefits of gesture and picture enrichment on children’s L2 learning. These findings suggest that both gestures and pictures enhance children’s L2 learning and that performance benefits are robust over long timescales.

Non-verbal Enrichment in Vocabulary Learning With a Virtual Pedagogical Agent

“…Participants who saw and imitated these gestures achieved higher memory recall rates than participants in a control group. Later studies replicated and extended these initial findings (e.g., Kelly et al, 2009;Macedonia and Knösche, 2011;de Nooijer et al, 2013de Nooijer et al, , 2014de Wit et al, 2017;Andrä et al, 2020;Sweller et al, 2020).…”

“…Overall, these results suggest that considering the interplay between learner characteristics and instructional strategies is important. In a recent study, Andrä et al (2020) demonstrated the benefit of gestures over a control condition (auditorily presented words only) on children's retention of abstract and concrete nouns in two studies. A third study solely comparing pictures and gestures (without control), however did not reveal a benefit of gestures over pictures (Andrä et al, 2020).…”

“…Rowe et al (2013), however, found no clear benefit of pictures and gestures over a control baseline. Studies with adult learners are sparse and results do not clearly speak for or against one of the enrichment techniques, suggesting that the way how learners deal with the picture-/gesture input might be essential (Mayer et al, 2015(Mayer et al, , 2017Repetto et al, 2017;Morett, 2019;Andrä et al, 2020). Moreover, some works indicate that interindividual differences (Rowe et al, 2013;de Nooijer et al, 2014) as well as word types to be learning de Nooijer et al, 2013) play a significant role in L2 vocabulary learning.…”

“…Previous research has demonstrated that picture-based enrichment (Bull and Wittrock, 1973;Smith et al, 1987Smith et al, , 1994Plass et al, 1998;McGregor et al, 2007;Morett, 2019;Andrä et al, 2020) as well as gesture-based enrichment can improve word learning (with studies predominantly using iconic or emblematic gestures, cf. Quinn-Allen, 1995;Kelly et al, 2009;Macedonia and Knösche, 2011;de Nooijer et al, 2013de Nooijer et al, , 2014Macedonia and Klimesch, 2014;Baills et al, 2019;Huang et al, 2019;Andrä et al, 2020;Sweller et al, 2020). The details of the underlying mechanisms are, however, not understood in full detail.…”

Visual Sensory Cortices Causally Contribute to Auditory Word Recognition Following Sensorimotor-Enriched Vocabulary Training

“…Hence, teaching strategies may be advanced by establishing links between new information and congruent sensorimotor and multisensory enrichment (cf. Andrä et al. 2020 ).…”