Cover not available
Article published In:
Gesture
Vol. 14:1 (2014) ► pp.46–69

Words in action

Using gestures to improve verb learning in primary school children

| Erasmus University Rotterdam

Research on embodied cognition has shown that action and language are closely intertwined. The present study seeks to exploit this relationship, by systematically investigating whether motor activation would improve eight-to-nine year old children’s learning of vocabulary in their first language. In a within-subjects paradigm, 49 children learned novel object manipulation, locomotion and abstract verbs via a verbal definition alone and in combination with gesture observation, imitation, or generation (i.e., enactment). Results showed that learning of locomotion verbs significantly improved through gesture observation compared to verbal definitions only. For learning object-manipulation verbs, children with good language skills seemed to benefit from imitation and enactment, while this appeared to hinder children with poor language skills. Learning of abstract verbs was not differentially affected by instructional condition. This study suggests that the effectiveness of observing and generating gestures for vocabulary learning may differ depending on verb type and language proficiency.

Keywords: gestures, motor action, embodied cognition, word learning
Published online: 30 March 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.14.1.03noo
References
Adank, Patti, Peter Hagoort, & Harold Bekkering
(2010) Imitation improves language comprehension. Psychological Science, 211, 1903–1909. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, Robert K., Sharon J. Derry, Alexander Renkl, & Donald Wortham
(2000) Learning from examples: Instructional principles from the worked examples research. Review of Educational Research, 701, 181–214. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baayen, Harald, Richard Piepenbrock, & Hedderik van Rijn
(1993) The CELEX lexical database (CD ROM). Philadelphia, PE: Linguistic Data Consortium. University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Barsalou, Lawrence W
(2008) Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 591, 617–645. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bandura, Albert
(1986) Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Borghi, Anna M
(2005) Object concepts and action. In Diane Pecher & Rolf A. Zwaan (Eds.), The grounding of cognition: The role of perception and action in memory, language, and thinking (pp. 8–34). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Borghi, Anna M., Nicoletta Caramelli, & Annalisa Setti
(2005) Conceptual information on objects’ locations. Brain and Language, 931, 140–151. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Boroditsky, Lera & Michael Ramscar
(2002) The roles of body and mind in abstract thought. Psychological Science, 131, 185–189. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cartmill, Erica A., Sian Beilock, & Susan Goldin-Meadow
(2012) A word in the hand: action, gesture and mental representation in humans and non-human primates. Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 3671, 129–143. 10.1098/rstb.2011.0162. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Casale, Ula P
(1985) Motor imaging: A reading-vocabulary strategy. Journal of Reading, 281, 619–621.Google Scholar
Cito
(2009) Monitor taal en rekenen. Eerste meting: een indicatie van leerprestaties in termen van het referentiekader [Monitor language and calculus. First measurement: an indication of learning abilities in terms of the frame of reference]. Arnhem: Cito.Google Scholar
Cohen, Ronald L. & Nicola Otterbein
(1992) The mnemonic effect of speech gestures: Pantomimic and non-pantomimic gestures compared. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 41, 113–139. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Coltheart, Max
(1981) The MRC psycholinguistic database. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 33A1, 497–505. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cook, Susan W., Zachary Mitchell, & Susan Goldin-Meadow
(2008) Gesturing makes learning last. Cognition, 1061, 1047–1058. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Daneman, Meredyth & Ian Green
(1986) Individual differences in comprehending and producing words in context. Journal of Memory and Language, 251, 1–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dijkstra, Katinka & Michael P. Kaschak
(2006) Encoding in verbal, enacted, and autobiographical tasks in young and older adults. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 591, 1338–1345. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ehrlich, Stacy B., Susan C. Levine, & Susan Goldin-Meadow
(2006) The importance of gesture in children’s spatial reasoning. Developmental Psychology, 421, 1259–1268. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ellis, Nick C. & Susan G. Sinclair
(1996) Working memory in the acquisition of vocabulary and syntax: Putting language in good order. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49A1, 234–250. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Engelkamp, Johannes, Hubert D. Zimmer, Gilbert Mohr, & Odmar Sellen
(1994) Memory of self-performed tasks: Self-performing during recognition. Memory & Cognition, 221, 34–39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Engelkamp, Johannes
(1998) Memory for actions. Hove, UK: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Engelkamp, Johannes & Ronald L. Cohen
(1991) Current issues in memory of action events. Psychological Research / Psychologische Forschung, 531, 175–182. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Engelkamp, Johannes & Hubert D. Zimmer
(1997) Sensory factors in memory for subject-performed tasks. Acta Psychologica, 961, 43–60. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ernest, Carole H
(1977) Imagery ability and cognition: A critical review. Journal of Mental Imagery, 11, 181–215.Google Scholar
Feyereisen, Pierre
(2009) Enactment effects and integration processes in younger and older adults’ memory for actions. Memory, 171, 374–385. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fischer, Martin H. & Rolf A. Zwaan
(2008) Embodied language: A review of the role of motor system in language comprehension. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 611, 825–850. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Frick-Horbury, Donna
(2002) The effect of hand gestures on verbal recall as a function of high- and low- verbal-skill levels. The Journal of General Psychology, 1291, 137–147. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Glenberg, Arthur M., Marc Sato, Luigi Cattaneo, Lucia Riggio, Daniele Palumbo, & Giovanni Buccino
(2008) Processing abstract language modulates motor system activity. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 611, 905–919. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hauk, Olaf, Ingrid Johnsrude, & Friedemann Pulvermüller
(2004) Somatotopic representation of action words in human motor and premotor cortex. Neuron, 411, 301–307. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hickok, Gregory
(2010) The role of mirror neurons in speech perception and action word semantics. Language and Cognitive Processes, 251, 749–776. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Höffler, Tim N. & Detlev Leutner
(2007) Instructional animation versus static pictures: A meta-analysis. Learning and Instruction, 171, 722–738. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hostetter, Autumn B
(2011) When do gestures communicate? A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 1371, 297–315. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kelly, Spencer D., Tara McDevitt, & Megan Esch
(2009) Brief training with co-speech gesture lends a hand to word learning in a foreign language. Language and Cognitive Processes, 241, 313–334. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Macedonia, Manuela & Thomas R. Knösche
(2011) Body in mind: How gestures empower foreign language learning. Mind, Brain, and Education, 51, 196–211. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nilsson, Lars-Göran
(2000) Remembering actions and words. In Endel Tulving & Fergus I.M. Craik (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of memory (pp. 137–148). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nyström, Pär, Therese Ljunghammar, Kerstin Rosander, & Claes von Hofsten
(2011) Using mu rhythm desynchronization to measure mirror neuron activity in infants. Developmental Science, 141, 327–335. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ping, Raedy M. & Susan Goldin-Meadow
(2008) Hands in the air: Using ungrounded iconic gestures to teach children conservation of quantity. Developmental Psychology, 441, 1277–1287. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pulvermüller, Friedemann, Olaf Hauk, Vadim V. Nikulin, & Risto J. llmoniemi
(2005) Functional links between motor and language systems. European Journal of Neuroscience, 211, 793–797. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Renkl, Alexander
(2011) Instruction based on examples. In Richard E. Mayer & Patricia A. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of research on learning and instruction (pp. 272–295). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rizzolatti, Giacomo & Laila Craighero
(2004) The mirror-neuron system. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 271, 169–192. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rueschemeyer, Shirley-Ann, Oliver Lindemann, Daan van Rooij, Wessel O. van Dam, & Harold Bekkering
(2010) Effects of intentional motor actions on embodied language processing. Experimental Psychology, 571, 260–266. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schrooten, Walter & Anne Vermeer
(1994) Woorden in het basisonderwijs, 15.000 woorden aangeboden aan leerlingen. Tilburg, The Netherlands: Tilburg University Press.Google Scholar
Shams, Ladan & Aaron R. Seitz
(2008) Benefits of multisensory learning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 121, 411–417. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tellier, Marion
(2005) L’utilisation des gestes en classe de langue: comment évaluer leur effet sur la mémorisation du lexique? In Michel Billières, Pascal Gaillard, & Nathalie Spanghero-Gaillard (Eds.), Actes du Premier colloque international de Didactique Cognitive: DIDCOG2005. Université de Toulouse–Le Mirail, 26–28 Janvier 2005 (CD ROM).
(2007) How do teacher’s gestures help young children in second language acquisition? Proceedings of the meeting of International Society of Gesture Studies, ISGS 2005: Interacting Bodies , June 15–18, 2007. ENS Lyon, France (online publication).
(2008) The effect of gestures on second language memorisation by young children. Gesture, 81, 219–235. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tessari, Alessia, Nicola Canessa, Maja Ukmar, & Raffaella I. Rumiati
(2007) Neuropsychological evidence for a strategic control of multiple routes in imitation. Brain: A Journal of Neurology, 1301, 1111–1126. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tettamanti, Marco, Giovanni Buccino, Maria C. Saccuman, Vittorio Gallese, Massimo Danna, Paola Scifo, Ferruccio Fazio, Giacomo Rizzolatti, Stefano F. Cappa, & Daniela Perani
(2005) Listening to action-related sentences activates fronto-parietal motor circuits. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 171, 273–281. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Dam, Wessel O., Shirley-Ann Rueschemeyer, & Harold Bekkering
(2010) How specifically are action verbs represented in the neural motor system: An fMRI study. NeuroImage, 531, 1318–1325. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Gog, Tamara, Fred Paas, Nadine Marcus, Paul Ayres, & John Sweller
(2009) The mirror neuron system and observational learning: Implications for the effectiveness of dynamic visualizations. Educational Psychology Review, 211, 21–30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Gog, Tamara & Nikol Rummel
(2010) Example-based learning: Integrating cognitive and social-cognitive research perspectives. Educational Psychology Review, 221, 155–174. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Willems, Roel M., Ludovica Labruna, Mark D’Esposito, Richard Ivry, & Daniel Casasanto
(2011) A functional role for the motor system in language understanding: Evidence from theta-burst Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. Psychological Science, 221, 849–854. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 14 other publications

Bergmann, Kirsten, Maria del Mar Cordero Rull & Birgit Lugrin
2018. Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Multimodal Analyses Enabling Artificial Agents in Human-Machine Interaction, ► pp. 26 ff. DOI logo
Dargue, Nicole & Naomi Sweller
2020. Learning Stories Through Gesture: Gesture’s Effects on Child and Adult Narrative Comprehension. Educational Psychology Review 32:1 ► pp. 249 ff. DOI logo
Gawne, Lauren, Chelsea Krajcik, Helene N. Andreassen, Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker & Barbara F. Kelly
2019. Data transparency and citation in the journal Gesture . Gesture 18:1 ► pp. 83 ff. DOI logo
Hainselin, Mathieu, Laurence Picard, Patrick Manolli, Sophie Vankerkore-Candas & Béatrice Bourdin
2017. Hey Teacher, Don’t Leave Them Kids Alone: Action Is Better for Memory than Reading. Frontiers in Psychology 08 DOI logo
Hald, Lea A., Jacqueline de Nooijer, Tamara van Gog & Harold Bekkering
2016. Optimizing Word Learning via Links to Perceptual and Motoric Experience. Educational Psychology Review 28:3 ► pp. 495 ff. DOI logo
Lugrin, Birgit, Benjamin Eckstein, Kirsten Bergmann & Corinna Heindl
2018. Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, ► pp. 59 ff. DOI logo
Martinez-Lincoln, Amanda, Le M. Tran & Sarah R. Powell
2018. What the hands tell us about mathematical learning. Gesture 17:3 ► pp. 375 ff. DOI logo
Mertens, Ulrich J. & Katharina J. Rohlfing
2021. Progressive Reduction of Iconic Gestures Contributes to School-Aged Children’s Increased Word Production. Frontiers in Psychology 12 DOI logo
Nicoladis, Elena, Paula Marentette & Candace Lam
2022. Co-speech gestures can interfere with learning foreign language words*. Gesture 21:2-3 ► pp. 239 ff. DOI logo
Ortega, Gerardo
2017. Iconicity and Sign Lexical Acquisition: A Review. Frontiers in Psychology 8 DOI logo
Rodríguez-Cuadrado, Sara, Fernando Ojedo, Francisco Vicente-Conesa, Carlos Romero-Rivas, Miguel Ángel Carlos Sampedro & Julio Santiago
2023. Sign iconicity helps learning new words for abstract concepts in a foreign language. Second Language Research 39:3 ► pp. 873 ff. DOI logo
Rosenthal-von der Pütten, Astrid M. & Kirsten Bergmann
2020. Non-verbal Enrichment in Vocabulary Learning With a Virtual Pedagogical Agent. Frontiers in Psychology 11 DOI logo
van Berkel-van Hoof, Lian, Daan Hermans, Harry Knoors & Ludo Verhoeven
2016. Benefits of augmentative signs in word learning: Evidence from children who are deaf/hard of hearing and children with specific language impairment. Research in Developmental Disabilities 59 ► pp. 338 ff. DOI logo
Wellsby, Michele & Penny Pexman
2019. Learning Labels for Objects: Does Degree of Sensorimotor Experience Matter?. Languages 4:1 ► pp. 3 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.