Gesture and language as a system of embodied learning
Date
2011-11-07
Authors
Haddon, Lori K.
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Abstract
This study examines the relationship between gesture and a deep understanding of a second language. The participants, including the researcher, are second-language educators who have experience drastic changes in levels of fluency after switching from traditional teaching methods, prioritizing grammar and thematic teaching, to the gesture approach. Data of this phenomenon is collected through a series of semi-structured interviews giving priority to narrative accounts of personal experiences. A phenomenological framework is employed to allow the dialogues to fuse and new understandings to emerge in the spaces in between. The findings are presented in an in-depth conversation between the participants and including well-known dynamic systems theorists to allow new insights and connections to develop. which are then creatively summarized and further explored in the final chapter through multi-lingual slam poetry.
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Keywords
gesture, second language acquisition