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When gesture does and does not promote learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2014

Susan Goldin-Meadow
Susan Goldin-Meadow*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
*
Correspondence addresses: Susan Goldin-Meadow, Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, 5730 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. E-mail: sgm@uchicago.edu.
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Abstract

Speakers move their hands when they talk—they gesture. These gestures can signal whether the speaker is ready to learn a particular task and, in this sense, provide a window onto the speaker's knowledge. But gesture can do more than reflect knowledge. It can play a role in changing knowledge in at least two ways: indirectly through its effects on communication with the learner, and directly through its effects on the learner's cognition. Gesturing is, however, not limited to learners. Speakers who are proficient in a task also gesture. Their gestures have a different relation to speech than the gestures that novices produce, and seem to support cognition rather than change it. Gesturing can thus serve as a tool for thinking and for learning.

Keywords

gesturelearningmathematicsconservationexpertsnovices
Type
Research Article
Information
Language and Cognition , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , March 2010 , pp. 1 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © UK Cognitive Linguistics Association 2010

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