Do Iconic Gestures Facilitate L2 Vocabulary Learning?

Abstract

Due to globalization, the value of being competent in multiple languages increased, and a large number of people around the world put effort into learning a foreign language. Much research has been conducted on second language acquisition, and some suggest that nonverbal communication could benefit the language learning process. This study explored the effects of highly iconic gestures on the word learning process, and additionally investigated the differences of acquiring novel nouns and verbs. In an experiment, participants learned novel Slovakian words, and were tested on the comprehension of these words. The participants were divided into three different gesture conditions, namely: gesture viewing, gesture viewing AND repeating, and no gesture. The results of this study show that the participants’ comprehension differed per gesture condition. However, further analyses were inconclusive. Lastly, the study did show that verbs were memorized significantly better than nouns when presented with congruent iconic gestures. Future research may further explore the differences between learning different word types, and may eliminate limitations of this study by conducting an experiment in a real life educational setting.