Previous studies have shown that bilinguals use more manual gestures than monolinguals (Pika et al., 2006; Nicoladis et al., 2009), suggesting that gestures may facilitate lexical retrieval or may reduce the cognitive load on working memory during speech production. In this study, we tested the generalizability of these findings by comparing the use of gestures in three groups of children (English monolinguals, Mandarin Chinese-English bilinguals, and French-English bilinguals) between 7 and 10 years of age as they retold two short stories about a cartoon. The bilingual children were asked to retell narratives in both languages. The results showed that the French-English bilinguals used significantly more gestures than the Chinese-English bilinguals. With respect to gesture rates accompanying speech in English, the monolinguals did not differ from either bilingual group. The bilingual children’s use of gestures was generally not correlated with our measures of working memory (narrative length and speech rate). These results suggest that culture may be a more important determiner of gesture rate than bilingualism and/or working memory capacity.
2020. Language contact does not drive gesture transfer: Heritage speakers maintain language specific gesture patterns in each language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 23:2 ► pp. 414 ff.
AZIZ, JASMINE R. & ELENA NICOLADIS
2019. “My French is rusty”: Proficiency and bilingual gesture use in a majority English community. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 22:04 ► pp. 826 ff.
Brown, Amanda
2016. Gestures in multi-competence. In The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Multi-Competence, ► pp. 276 ff.
Congdon, Eliza L., Miriam A. Novack & Elizabeth M. Wakefield
2024. Exploring Individual Differences: A Case for Measuring Children's Spontaneous Gesture Production as a Predictor of Learning From Gesture Instruction. Topics in Cognitive Science
McClain, Maryellen Brunson, Megan E. Golson, Cassity R. Haverkamp, Bryn Harris, Erica Ficklin, Sarah E. Schwartz & Camille J. Wynn
2023. Caregiver Perceptions of Social Communication and Interaction: Development and Validation of the SCIPS. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
2020. Second language acquisition of American Sign Language influences co-speech gesture production. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 23:3 ► pp. 473 ff.
Özer, Demet & Tilbe Göksun
2020. Gesture Use and Processing: A Review on Individual Differences in Cognitive Resources. Frontiers in Psychology 11
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