THE IMPORTANCE OF GESTURES IN ANALYSING ESL CLASSROOM DISCOURSE

THE IMPORTANCE OF GESTURES IN ANALYSING ESL CLASSROOM DISCOURSE

A. Attelisi, Abdulhameed

When people speak, they usually accompany their speech with movements of hands and arms. It is believed that some of these hand movements (gesture) exhibit a meaning which is related to the verbal message. Although the nature of the relationship between gesture and speech is still not clear, we all acknowledge that teachers in general and ESL teachers in specific rely heavily on gesture to make the learning process more effective. Therefore considering the essence of gestures in classroom interaction completes the picture of classroom discourse. The aim of this paper is to provide an example of the relationship between speech and gesture and how gestures play a crucial role in classroom interaction. Some extracts from ESL lesson were analysed with special focus on the use of gestures by the teacher and learners. The results indicate that in order to understand ESL classroom interaction we need to consider gestures in addition to speech. The study suggests some implications which might be beneficial when analysing ESL classroom discourse. Keywords: Gestures, Classroom interaction, ESL teaching, Conversation analysis.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2014

3345