Gesture in speaking tasks beyond the classroom: An exploration of the multimodal negotiation of meaning via Skype videoconferencing on mobile devices

This qualitative study attempts to explicate the role of gestures formed with learners’ hands and technology during second language speaking tasks via Skype videoconferencing tools, accessed on mobile devices. The theory of negotiation of meaning according to the Varonis and Gass model of non-unders...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:System (Linköping) Vol. 81; pp. 26 - 38
Main Authors: Lee, Helen, Hampel, Regine, Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2019
Elsevier Science Ltd
Subjects:
Classroom communication
Classrooms
Deployment
Educational activities
English as a second language learning
English language
English language learners
Gesture
Gestures
Hands
Joint attention
Language learning beyond the classroom
Language usage
Meaning
Mobile devices
Mobile phones
Mobile-assisted-language-learning (MALL)
Multimodal communication
Multimodality
Negotiation
Negotiation of meaning
Ordination
Qualitative research
Second language acquisition (SLA)
Task-based language learning (TBLL)
Tasks
Video conferencing
Video teleconferencing
Videoconferencing (VC)
Vocabulary
Videoconferencing (VC)
Task-based language learning (TBLL)
Mobile devices
Mobile-assisted-language-learning (MALL)
Multimodal communication
Gesture
Second language acquisition (SLA)
Negotiation of meaning
Language learning beyond the classroom
ISSN:0346-251X, 1879-3282
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This qualitative study attempts to explicate the role of gestures formed with learners’ hands and technology during second language speaking tasks via Skype videoconferencing tools, accessed on mobile devices. The theory of negotiation of meaning according to the Varonis and Gass model of non-understandings (1985) underpins the study. Data was collected from ten intermediate English language learners via recordings of their task-based interactions and stimulated recall interviews. The study found that gestures support forms of negotiation through affording participants a range of visual and embodied clues which operate in close conjunction with their language use. Findings suggest that gestures play a role in the establishment of joint attention and negotiation of vocabulary; and they are exploited to appeal for assistance and scaffold interlocutors. In some instances, gestures also potentially confuse learners. The deployment of mobile technologies was found to transform and mediate gestures in complex ways. Learners also experience challenges in their co-ordination of multimodal talk from beyond the classroom.
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ISSN:0346-251X
1879-3282
DOI:10.1016/j.system.2018.12.013