초등영어교사 제스처의 기능과 학습자의 인식

Functions of teachers’ gestures in the primary English classroom and learners’ perceptions of the gestures

Studies on gestures have rarely addressed the question of how learners perceive teachers’ gestures and whether they actually take up the information gestures seem to provide. The present study explores the functions of teachers’ gestures in the primary English classroom and investigates how the learners perceive the gestures from a qualitative perspective. The data were collected through interviews with 6 teachers and 57 learners based on a stimulated recall methodology. The results showed that the teachers’ gestures played a fundamental role in the learning process and that the learners interpreted the teachers’ gestures as serving five functions: cognitive, emotional, linguistic, organizational, and multiple functions. It is suggested that teachers need to become more reflective regarding their gestural styles and support learners by developing pedagogic gestures which are tuned to their leaners.