Non-verbal resources and storytelling in second language classroom interaction

Authors

  • Alexis Tabensky University of New South Wales

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v5i3.321

Keywords:

non-verbal resources, storytelling, classroom interaction, learning

Abstract

This study examines a single fragment of second language classroom interaction where learners jointly participate in the activity of telling a story. When a student in a French class at tertiary level recounts a personal anecdote, an intricate fabric of coordinated non-verbal resources and talk develops: elaborate hand gestures, head movements, facial expressions, and gaze by the teller, laughter by the audience, all these cues appear organically linked and embedded in the ongoing talk. The recount itself involves language that is challenging for these learners of French. However, the teller succeeds in completing her story coherently and in an orderly fashion. Rooted in the multidisciplinary field of gesture studies (McNeill 1992, 2000, 2005; Kendon and Müller 2001; Kendon 2004), and working with an approach framed by conversation analysis and context analysis (Streeck 2009), the article describes in detail the unfolding of this telling and demonstrates that, through an interplay of multimodal resources, participants engage in cooperative talk and learning. It also argues for the need to consider hand gesture and non-verbal behaviours as a central component of L2 classroom interaction.

Author Biography

  • Alexis Tabensky, University of New South Wales

    Alexis Tabensky is a Senior Lecturer in French in the University of New South Wales. She researches gesture use by second language learners and by native speakers of French in expository discourse and in conversational encounters.

References

Alibali, M., Heath, D. and Myers, H. (2001). Effects of visibility between speaker and listener on gesture production: Some gestures are meant to be seen. Journal of Memory and Language 44 (2): 169–188. http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jmla.2000.2752

Allen, L.Q (1995). The effect of emblematic gestures on the development and access of mental representations of French expressions. The Modern Language Journal 79 (4): 521–529. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1995.tb05454.x

Bavelas, J., Coates, L. and Johnson, T. (2002). Listener responses as a collaborative process: The role of gaze. Journal of Communication 52 (3): 566–580. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2002.tb02562.x

Calbris, G. and J. Montredon, J. (1986). Des gestes et des mots pour le dire. Paris: Clé International.

Calbris, G. and Porcher, L. (1989). Geste et communication. Paris: Hatier-Crédif.

Caradec, F. (2005). Dictionnaire des gestes. Attitudes et mouvements expressifs en usage dans le monde entier. Paris: Fayard.

Choi, S. and Lantolf, J. P. (2008). Representation and embodiment of meaning in L2 communication. Motion events in the speech and gesture of advanced L2 Korean and L2 English speakers. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 30 (2): 191–224. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0272263108080315

Clark, H.H. (1996). Using Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Glenn, P. (2003) Laughter in Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511519888

Goodwin C. (2000) Action and embodiment within situated human interaction. Journal of Pragmatics 32 (10): 1489–1522. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00096-X

Goodwin, C. (2003). The body in action. In J. Coupland and R. Gwyn (eds) Discourse, the Body and Identity, 19–42. New York: Palgrave/Macmillan.

Gullberg, M. (1998). Gesture as a Communication Strategy in Second Language Discourse. A Study of Learners of French and Swedish. Lund: Lund University Press.

Gullberg, M. (2003). Gestures, referents, and anaphoric linkage in learner varieties. In C. Dimroth and M. Starren (eds) Information Structure and the Dynamics of Language Acquisition, 311–328. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Gullberg, M. and McCafferty, S. (2008). Introduction to gesture and SLA: Toward an integrated approach. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 30 (2): 133–146. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0272263108080285

Haakana, M. (2010). Laughter and smiling: Notes on co-occurrences. Journal of Pragmatics 42 (6): 1499–1512. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.01.010

Holler, J. and Beattie, G. (2003). Pragmatic aspects of representational gestures. Do speakers use them to clarify verbal ambiguity for the listener? Gesture 3 (2): 127–154.

Holt, E. (1996). Reporting on talk: The use of direct reported speech in conversation. Research on Language and Social Interaction 29 (3): 219–245. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327973rlsi2903_2

Holt, E. (2000). Reporting and reacting: Concurrent responses to reported speech. Research on Language and Social Interaction 33 (4): 425–454. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15327973RLSI3304_04

Jefferson, G. (1979). A technique for inviting laughter and its subsequent acceptance/declination. In G. Psathas (ed.) Everyday Language: Studies in Ethnomethodology, 79–96. New York: Irvington Publishers.

Kendon, A. and Müller, C. (2001). Introducing GESTURE. Gesture 1 (1): 1–7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/gest.1.1.01ken

Kendon, A. (2004). Gesture. Visible Action as Utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lazaraton, A. (2004). Gesture and speech in the vocabulary explanations of one ESL teacher: A microanalytic inquiry. Language Learning 54 (1): 79–117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2004.00249.x

Markee, N. (2000). Conversation Analysis. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum.

McCafferty, S. (2002). Gesture and creating zones of proximal development for second language learning. The Modern Language Journal 86 (2): 192–203. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1540-4781.00144

McCafferty, S. (2006). Gesture and the materialization of second language prosody. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL) 44 (2): 197–209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/IRAL.2006.008

McCafferty, S. (2008). Mimesis and second language acquisition. A sociocultural perspective. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 30 (2): 147–167. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0272263108080297

McNeill, D. (1992). Hand and Mind. What Gestures Reveal about Thought. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

McNeill, D. (2005). Gesture & Thought. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Mondada, L. (2007). Multimodal resources for turn-taking: pointing and the emergence of possible next speakers. Discourse Studies 9 (2): 194-225. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461445607075346

Mori, J. (2004a). Negotiating sequential boundaries and learning opportunities: A case from a Japanese language classroom. The Modern Language Journal 88 (4): 536–550. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0026-7902.2004.t01-17-.x

Mori, J. (2004b). Pursuit of understanding: Rethinking ‘negotiation of meaning’ in view of projected action. In R. Gardner and J. Wagner (eds) Second Language Conversations, 157–177. London: Continuum.

Mori, J. and Hasegawa, A. (2009). Doing being a foreign language learner in a classroom: Embodiment of cognitive states as social events. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL) 47 (1): 65–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/iral.2009.004

Negueruela, E., Lantolf, J. P., Jordan, S. R. and Gelabert, J. (2004). The ‘private function’ of gesture in second language speaking activity: A study of motion verbs and gesturing in English and Spanish. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 14 (1): 113–147. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1473-4192.2004.00056.x

Neu, J. (1990). Assessing the role of nonverbal communication in the acquisition of communicative competence in L2. In R. C. Scarcella, E. S. Andersen and S. D. Krashen (eds) Developing Communicative Competence in a Second Language, 121–138. New York: Newbury House.

Nicoladis, E., Pika, S., Yin, H. and Marentette, P. (2007). Gesture use in story recall by Chinese-English bilinguals. Applied Psycholinguistics 28 (4): 721–735. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0142716407070385

Norrick, N. R. (2000). Conversational Narrative. Storytelling in Everyday Talk. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Olsher, D. (2004). Talk and gesture: The embodied completion of sequential actions in spoken interaction. In R. Gardner and J. Wagner (eds) Second Language Conversations, 221–245. London: Continuum.

Olsher, D. (2008). Gesturally-enhanced repeats in the repair turn: communication strategy or cognitive language-learning tool? In S. G. McCafferty and G. Stam (eds) Gesture. Second Language Acquisition and Classroom Research, 109–130. New York: Routledge.

Özyürek, A. (2002). Speech-gesture relationship across languages and in second language learners: Implications for spatial thinking and speaking. In B. Skarabela, S. Fish and A.H. Do (eds) Proceedings of the 26th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, 500–509. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

Perlmutter, D. (2002). On incongruities and logical inconsistencies in humor: The delicate balance. Humor 15 (2): 155–168.

Psathas, G. (1995). Conversation Analysis: The Study of Talk-in-Interaction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Sacks, H. and Schegloff, E. (2002). Home position. Gesture 2 (2): 133–146. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/gest.2.2.02sac

Seedhouse, P. (2004). The Interactional Architecture of the Language Classroom: A Conversation Analysis Perspective. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Seo, M. and Koshik, I. (2010). A conversation analytic study of gestures that engender repair in ESL conversational tutoring. Journal of Pragmatics 42 (8): 2219–2239. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.01.021

Sidnell, J. (2006). Coordinating gesture, talk, and gaze in reenactments. Research on Language and Social Interaction 39 (4): 377–409. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327973rlsi3904_2

Sime, D. (2006). What do learners make of teachers’ gestures in the language classroom? International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL) 44 (2): 211–230. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/IRAL.2006.009

Sime, D. (2008). ‘Because of her gesture, it’s very easy to understand’ – Learners’ perceptions of teachers’ gestures in the foreign language class. In S. G. McCafferty and G. Stam (eds) Gesture. Second Language Acquisition and Classroom Research, 259–279. New York: Routledge.

Stam, G. (1998). Changes in patterns of thinking about motion with L2 acquisition. In S. Santi, I. Guaïtella, C. Cavé; and G. Konopczynski (eds) Oralité et gestualité: Communication multimodale, interaction, 615-619. Paris: L’Harmattan.

Stam, G (2006). Thinking for speaking about motion: L1 and L2 speech and gesture. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL) 44 (2): 143–169.

Stam, G. (2008). What gestures reveal about second language acquisition. In S. G. McCafferty and G. Stam (eds) Gesture. Second Language Acquisition and Classroom Research, 231–255. New York: Routledge.

Streeck, J. (2009). Gesturecraft. The manu-facture of meaning. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/gs.2

Tabensky, A. (2006). Mise en mots et mise en gestes. In M. Faraco (ed.) La classe de langue. Théories, méthodes et pratique, 307–329. Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence.

Yoshioka, K. and Kellerman, E. (2006). Gestural introduction of Ground reference in L2 narrative discourse. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL) 44 (2): 173–195. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/IRAL.2006.007

Published

2015-09-14

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Tabensky, A. (2015). Non-verbal resources and storytelling in second language classroom interaction. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 5(3), 321-348. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v5i3.321

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >>