The effects of observing and producing gestures on Japanese word learning

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).…”

“…In sum, gesture-based benefits on memorizing linguistic materials occur both when participants perform the gestures themselves and also when they just observe the gestures produced by others (cf. Ianì and Bucciarelli, 2017;Sweller et al, 2020). Some studies even found memorization to be better when the motor system is engaged via self-performed action as opposed to observed action, i.e., when learners are engaged in gesture imitations vs. gesture observation.…”

“…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.…”

The Role of Gesture in Communication and Cognition: Implications for Understanding and Treating Neurogenic Communication Disorders

“…Gesture facilitates learning and memory in other ways, too. Producing meaningful gestures during foreign language learning (Macedonia and von Kriegstein, 2012;Macedonia, 2014;Sweller et al, 2020) and novel word-learning tasks (Krönke et al, 2013) improves subsequent retrieval. Gesture also seems to facilitate recall of mappings from linguistic representations; when explaining the meaning of metaphors, participants used more detail when allowed to gesture (Argyriou and Kita, 2013;Argyriou et al, 2017), suggesting that gesture helped participants retrieve literal and abstract meanings (Kita et al, 2017).…”

El gesto es parte del discurso y apoya el aprendizaje

“…El tercer estudio se enfoca en el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera y los beneficios del uso de gestos icónicos. Los autores manifiestan que reproducir los gestos icónicos del instructor hace que se incremente la probabilidad que los estudiantes realicen gestos icónicos espontáneos durante el aprendizaje, el argumento gira alrededor de que la imaginería motora beneficia el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera, a razón que, la observación en la codificación del profesor mejora la comprensión (Sweller, Shinooka-Phelan, & Austin, 2020).…”