Article published In:
Gestures in language developmentEdited by Marianne Gullberg and Kees de Bot
[Gesture 8:2] 2008
► pp. 236–255
Edited by Marianne Gullberg and Kees de Bot
[Gesture 8:2] 2008
► pp. 236–255
Gesture and information structure in first and second language
This study investigates the frequency of gestural marking of pre-introduced referents in discourse by Dutch learners of Japanese with native data as baseline. Of interest is whether learners’ over-explicit marking of referents in speech and gesture reported in the literature is a phenomenon related specifically to the acquisition process of pronominal systems or a general phenomenon related to learning to structure information in a target-like manner irrespective of target languages. The data were analyzed in terms of referential expressions used (lexical NP, pronoun, zero-anaphora) and of the rate of gestures accompanying mentions of referents. The results reveal that even when the target language does not have an active use of pronouns, learners overtly specify referents in two modalities. Cross-linguistic variations in discourse-related gestures and possible accounts of the frequent gestural marking of referents in L2 are discussed.
Keywords: gesture, discourse, information structure, second language learners
Cited by
Cited by 23 other publications
Azar, Zeynep, Ad Backus & Aslı Özyürek
2019. General- and Language-Specific Factors Influence Reference Tracking in Speech and Gesture in Discourse. Discourse Processes 56:7 ► pp. 553 ff. 
Azar, Zeynep & Aslı Özyürek
Azar, Zeynep, Aslı Özyürek & Ad Backus
2020. Turkish-Dutch bilinguals maintain language-specific reference tracking strategies in elicited narratives. International Journal of Bilingualism 24:2 ► pp. 376 ff.
COLLETTA, JEAN-MARC, MICHÈLE GUIDETTI, OLGA CAPIRCI, CARLA CRISTILLI, OZLEM ECE DEMIR, RAMONA N. KUNENE-NICOLAS & SUSAN LEVINE
2015. Effects of age and language on co-speech gesture production: an investigation of French, American, and Italian children's narratives. Journal of Child Language 42:1 ► pp. 122 ff.
Colletta, Jean-Marc, Ramona Kunene Nicolas & Michèle Guidetti
2018. Chapter 7. Gesture and speech in adults’ and children’s narratives. In Sources of Variation in First Language Acquisition [Trends in Language Acquisition Research, 22], ► pp. 139 ff.
Debreslioska, Sandra & Marianne Gullberg
2019. Discourse Reference Is Bimodal: How Information Status in Speech Interacts with Presence and Viewpoint of Gestures. Discourse Processes 56:1 ► pp. 41 ff.
Debreslioska, Sandra & Marianne Gullberg
2020. What’s New? Gestures Accompany Inferable Rather Than Brand-New Referents in Discourse. Frontiers in Psychology 11
Debreslioska, Sandra & Marianne Gullberg
2022. Information Status Predicts the Incidence of Gesture in Discourse: An Experimental Study. Discourse Processes 59:10 ► pp. 791 ff.
Debreslioska, Sandra, Joost van de Weijer & Marianne Gullberg
2019. Addressees Are Sensitive to the Presence of Gesture When Tracking a Single Referent in Discourse. Frontiers in Psychology 10
Frederiksen, Anne Therese & Rachel I. Mayberry
2019. Reference tracking in early stages of different modality L2 acquisition: Limited over-explicitness in novice ASL signers’ referring expressions. Second Language Research 35:2 ► pp. 253 ff.
Gullberg, Marianne
2012. Bilingualism and Gesture. In The Handbook of Bilingualism and Multilingualism, ► pp. 417 ff.
Holler, Judith, Janet Bavelas, Jonathan Woods, Mareike Geiger & Lauren Simons
2022. Given-New Effects on the Duration of Gestures and of Words in Face-to-Face Dialogue. Discourse Processes 59:8 ► pp. 619 ff.
KUNENE NICOLAS, RAMONA, MICHÈLE GUIDETTI & JEAN-MARC COLLETTA
2017. A cross-linguistic study of the development of gesture and speech in Zulu and French oral narratives. Journal of Child Language 44:1 ► pp. 36 ff.
Nakahama, Yuko
2018. Chapter 10. Effects of L2 exposure on the use of discourse devices in L2 storytelling. In Language Learning, Discourse and Cognition [Human Cognitive Processing, 64], ► pp. 249 ff.
Perniss, Pamela & Asli Özyürek
2015. Visible Cohesion: A Comparison of Reference Tracking in Sign, Speech, and Co-Speech Gesture. Topics in Cognitive Science 7:1 ► pp. 36 ff.
Rochat, Nicolas, Hugues Delmas, Vincent Denault, Benjamin Elissalde & Samuel Demarchi
2018. LA SYNERGOLOGIE RÉVISÉE PAR LES PAIRS. ANALYSE D’UNE PUBLICATION. Revue québécoise de psychologie 39:2 ► pp. 271 ff.
Rohrer, Patrick Louis, Júlia Florit-Pons, Ingrid Vilà-Giménez & Pilar Prieto
2022. Children Use Non-referential Gestures in Narrative Speech to Mark Discourse Elements Which Update Common Ground. Frontiers in Psychology 12
Ryan, Jonathon
2015. Overexplicit Referent Tracking in L2 English: Strategy, Avoidance, or Myth?. Language Learning 65:4 ► pp. 824 ff.
So, Wing Chee, Sotaro Kita & Susan Goldin-Meadow
2013. When Do Speakers Use Gestures to Specify Who Does What to Whom? The Role of Language Proficiency and Type of Gestures in Narratives. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 42:6 ► pp. 581 ff.
So, Wing-Chee & Miranda Kit-Yi Wong
2016. I use my space not yours: Use of gesture space for referential identification among children with autism spectrum disorders. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders 26 ► pp. 33 ff.
So, Wing-Chee, Ming Lui, Tze-Kiu Wong & Long-Tin Sit
2015. The Use of Hand Gestures to Communicate About Nonpresent Objects in Mind Among Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 58:2 ► pp. 373 ff.
SO, WING-CHEE & KIT-YI MIRANDA WONG
2018. Tracing the development of spatially modulated gestures in the manual modality in nonsigning Chinese-speaking children. Applied Psycholinguistics 39:3 ► pp. 527 ff.
Varnosfadrani, Azizollah Dabaghi & Mahbube Tavakol
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 august 2023. 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.