Emblematic gestures learning in Spanish as L2/FL: Interactions between types of gestures and tasks

Abstract

The acquisition of communicative competence in second and foreign languages requires the incorporation of verbal and non-verbal elements. Notwithstanding, few studies have performed empirical research into the acquisition of non-verbal signs. This research studies the learning of emblematic gestures for students of Spanish in the USA using an evolutionary analysis after instruction. Interactions between types of gestures ( common, different, and unique) based on the similarities with the first language and learning mechanisms in free and guided comprehension and production tasks are taken into account. The results indicate that although the detection and production of emblems improve with instruction, the progress is unequal: the categories different and unique obtain a higher rate of improvement than common emblems in specific tasks. In conclusion, it is essential for the teaching of gestures and non-verbal communication to consider, along with the non-verbal target language code, the non-verbal mother tongue code.

Nonverbal Communication in Classroom Interaction and Its Role in Italian Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

“…For German L2 see (Heidemann 1983;Kodakos 1992;Rosenbusch 1995;Hammer 1995;Kaiser 1998). For Spanish L2 see (Cestero 1999(Cestero , 2017Belío-Apaolaza and Hernández Muñoz 2021). A comparison between gestures in teaching Italian L2 and Korean L2 in Korea is offered in (Mondin 2022).…”