CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Educators looking for innovative methods to enhance foreign language vocabulary acquisition should consider incorporating gestures into their teaching toolkit. A recent study from the University of Illinois reveals that pairing new words with gestures significantly improves students’ comprehension, regardless of whether the gestures are intuitively linked to the word’s meaning.
This surprising finding suggests that any gesture, as long as it is distinct and not confused with other vocabulary words, can be beneficial in language instruction. Professor Kiel Christianson from the U. of I.’s educational psychology department, a co-author of the research, emphasizes the importance of limiting the number of new words introduced at once for optimal learning.
The core objective of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of different types of gestures – iconic, arbitrary, and no gestures – on participants’ ability to understand Mandarin vocabulary.
Iconic gestures are universally recognized and representational actions, easily understood across language barriers. Examples include mimicking drinking or holding a phone to the ear.
Conversely, arbitrary gestures are unique, invented movements with no inherent connection to the word they accompany. These meaningless motions, created by the instructor, formed a key part of the study.
The study involved 30 participants, all native English speakers, with varying levels of bilingualism but no prior exposure to Mandarin or any Chinese language.
Participants were taught 18 new Mandarin words, divided into three groups of six. Each group was presented with either arbitrary gestures, iconic gestures, or no gestures alongside the spoken word and its English translation.
Instructors repeated each Mandarin word and its English equivalent twice. Importantly, students only observed the gestures; they were not asked to replicate them.
Following two instructional sessions, students were tested using a multiple-choice format. The Mandarin words, along with their associated gestures (or lack thereof), were presented in random order, and students selected the correct English translation from four options.
The results were compelling: vocabulary acquisition improved by 8-10 percent when words were taught with either iconic or arbitrary gestures compared to those taught without any gestures.
“While an 8-10 percent improvement might seem modest, it can significantly impact a student’s test performance, potentially raising their grade by a full level,” Christianson noted. “Crucially, our findings indicate that gestures don’t need to be intuitively linked to the word to aid learning. Educators can effectively use any unique hand movement that isn’t associated with another word being taught.”
This is a particularly valuable insight for pedagogy. Many words, especially abstract concepts, lack easily representable iconic gestures. This study provides evidence that foreign language teachers can use any distinctive gesture to facilitate vocabulary learning.
Christianson and his colleagues propose that simply observing hand movements while a new word is presented helps students create a “kinetic image” of the word, enhancing memory.
When arbitrary gestures, unrelated to word meaning, were used, students likely developed their own personal, ad hoc associations between these gestures and the new vocabulary, further aiding memorization.
“Visualizing a gesture with each word creates multiple entry points to the meaning of new words, making them more memorable,” Christianson explained.
However, the study also revealed a limit to this gestural advantage. The positive impact diminished when students were presented with more than 10-12 new words at a time.
“This highlights the importance of introducing new vocabulary in manageable chunks,” Christianson advised. “Instead of overwhelming students with 40 new words for the next day, introduce around 10 words with gestures, allow them to be absorbed into memory, and then introduce another set of 10. This is a highly practical takeaway for educators.”
Xiaoyi “Kellie” Huang, a U. of I. alumna, spearheaded this research as her capstone project for her degree in the College of Education’s Applied Learning Science program. Graduate student Nayoung Kim also contributed as a co-author. The study has been published in the journal Language Learning.
Editor’s Note: To reach Kiel Christianson, call 217-265-6558; email [email protected]
The paper “Gesture and vocabulary learning in a foreign language” is available online or from the News Bureau
