Permalink :  http://hdl.handle.net/2115/45578

KEYWORDS : ジェスチャー; 談話; 指示; 第二言語; 機能

In the past, gesture has not been considered a significant aspect of learner language by second-language researchers, the only exception being researchers of communication strategies who have examined gesture in terms of compensatory strategies. This paper investigates how JFL learners employ gestures simultaneously with speech to promote the comprehensibility of their oral narratives. Story-retelling data in Japanese were collected from 12 lower-proficiency level English-speaking learners of Japanese and 9 native speakers. The results suggest that JFL learners and native speakers differ both quantitatively and qualitatively in their use of coverbal gestures during discourse production, achieving different communicative purposes. Overall, learners employ gestures more frequently than their native-speaking counterparts, and the most typical and prominent types of gestures during learner production are abstract beat and deictic gestures which make the identification of story characters in their narratives easier by increasing referential redundancy. In contrast, native speakers often use ostensive and pictorial iconic gestures in order to increase the dramatic effect of their stories. Learners' systematic use of different types of coverbal gestures for discourse-pragmatic management is also discussed.

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