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Gestures and Speech : The role of learners' gestures in second language acquisition

Wouters, Marie
(2020)

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Details

Supervisors
Gilquin, Gaëtanelle
Faculty
Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres
Degree label
Master [120] en langues et lettres modernes, orientation germaniques
Abstract
enThis thesis analyses the use of gestures made by learners of a second language (L2) when they have to produce speech in this L2. This multimodal corpus-based study observed and compared the use of gestures of eight learners of English. These learners had a level between B1 and C2. It was found that, although some individual variations could be observed, the proficiency level of the learners influenced their use of gestures, and this in terms of frequency, types of gestures used and relationship to speech. Two main functions have been attributed to gestures: on the one hand they seem to influence 'external' communication, i.e. the way they transmit speech, and on the other hand they seem to influence the 'internal' cognitive process which leads learners to produce speech. The conclusions of this thesis corroborate the results of previous studies on gestures and gesture use and open up interesting perspectives. Further research could indeed confirm the tendencies observed in this study, and extend the observations to A1 and A2 learners.