Semiotic Mediums of Meaning-Making in Oral Reproduction Course in TEFL

Subject Areas : Research in English Language Pedagogy

Seyyed Mohammad Ali  Soozandehfar ¹ (TEFL Hormozgan University)

Received: 2016-12-09 Accepted : 2017-02-19 Published : 2017-02-19

Keywords: gesticulation, summarization, Gesture, oral reproduction, Semiotics,

Abstract :

This investigation aims at examining how the semiotic mediums of gesture and speech integrate into one another to make gesticulations, so as to mediate meaning in oral reproduction. To this end, this study concentrates on Hodge and Kress’s (1988) theoretical framework linking semiotics to TEFL contexts, and also analyzes the gesticulations in oral reproduction applying McNeill’s (2005) scheme or Kendon’s (2004) Continuum with four categories of iconic, metaphoric, deictic, and beat gesticulations. Results illuminated how the creation of gesticulation brings about a sort of mediation between what is in the mind of the speaker and what is expressed to the audience, and how this mediation of gesticulations facilitates and clarifies the meaning in the speaker’s oral reproduction or summarization process, so that the audience can better understand the speaker’s intentions or summaries. The findings have some implications for TEFL teachers and researchers to understand the dialectic relationship of oral speech, written language, and gesture in language during the oral reproduction process.

References:

Bakhtin, M. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Caesar, M. (1999). Philosophy, Semiotics, and the Work of Fiction. Wiley-Blackwell.
Chandler, D. (2002) Semiotics: The basics.
London, UK: Routledge.
Chinn, C. (2006). The microgenetic method: Current work and extensions to classroom research. In J. Green, G. Camilli, and P. Elmore. Handbook of Complementary Methods in Education Research. (pp. 439-456). Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
Gullberg, M. (2008). A Helping Hand? Gestures, L2 Learners, and Grammar. In S. McCafferty (Ed.), Gesture (pp. 185-210). New York: Routledge.
Gullberg, M., & McCafferty, S. (2008). Introduction to gesture and SLA: Toward an integrated approach SSLA 30, 133-136.
Harré, R., & Secord, P. (1972). The explanation of human behavior. London, UK: Oxford, Basil Blackwell.
Huberman, M., & Miles, M. (1998). Data management and analysis methods. In N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials (pp. 179-210). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Kendon, A. (2004). Gesture: Visible action as utterance. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.

Kida, T. (2008). Does Gesture Aid Discourse Comprehension in the L2? In S. McCafferty & G. Stam (Ed.), Gesture (pp. 131-156). New York: Routledge.
Kita, S. (2000). How representational gestures help speaking. In McNeill (Ed.), Language and gesture (pp. 162-185). New York: Cambridge University
Lantolf, S. L. & Thorn, J. P. (2006). Sociocultural theory and the genesis of second language development. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lazaraton, A. (2004). Gesture and speech in the vocabulary explanations of one ESL teacher: A microanalytic inquiry. Language Learning 54: 79-117.
Lee, J. (2008). Gesture and Private Speech in Second Language Acquisition. SSLA 30: 169- 190.
Luria, A. R. (1979). The making of mind.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Martin, B., & Ringham F. (2006). Key terms in
semiotics. New York: Continuum Books.
McCafferty, S. (1998). Nonverbal expression and L2 private speech. Applied Linguistics 7, 73-96.
McCafferty, S. (2002). Gesture and creating zones of proximal development for second language learning. The Modern Language Journal, 86, 192-202.
McCafferty, S. (2004). Space for cognition: gesture and second language learning. The International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 14, 148-165.
McCafferty, S. (2008a). Material Foundations for Second Language Acquisition: Gesture, Metaphor, and Internalization. In S. McCafferty & G. Stam (Ed.), Gesture (pp. 47-65). New York: Routledge.
McCafferty, S, & Ahmed, M. (2000). The appropriation of gestures of the abstract by L2 learners, In J. Lantolf, Sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 199-218). New York: Oxford University Press.
MCafferty, S, & Stam, G. (2008). Gesture. New
York: Routledge.

McNeill, D. (1992). Hand and mind: What gestures reveal about thought. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
McNeill, D. (2005). Gesture & Thought.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. McNeill, D., & Duncan, S. (2000). Growth
points in thinking-for-speaking. In D. McNeill (Ed.), Language and gesture (pp. 141-161). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Robbins, D. (2003). Vygotsky’s  and  A.  A. Leontiev’s  semiotics  and  psycholinguistics: applications for education, second language acquisition, and theories of language. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
Roebuck, R., & Wagner, L. (2004). Teaching repetition as a communicative and cognitive tool: evidence from a Spanish conversation class. The International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 14, 70-89.
Sawyer, K. (2002). Unresolved Tensions in sociocultural theory: Analogies with Contemporary Sociological Debates. Culture and Psychology 8: 283-305.
Schensul, J., LeCompte, M., Nastasi, B., & Borgatti, S. (1999). Enhanced ethnographic methods: Audiovisual teachniques, focused-group interviews, and elicitation techniques. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.
Sime,  D.  (2008).  “Because  of  her  gesture,  it’s very  easy  to  understand”—Learners’ perceptions  of  teachers’  gestures in the foreign language class. In S. McCafferty &
G. Stam, (Eds.), Gesture (pp. 259-279). New York: Routledge.
Slobin, D. (2003). Language and thought online: cognitive consequences of linguistic relativity. In D. Gentner and S. Goldin-Meadow, Language in mind: advances in the study of language and thought (pp. 157-192). Cambridge: MA: MIT Press.
Stam, G. (2008). What Gestures Reveal About Second Language Acquisition. In S. McCafferty & G. Stam, (Eds.), Gesture (pp. 231-256). New York: Routledge.
Tomasello, M. (1999). The cultural origins of human cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Cambridge, MA: Harbard University Press.
Unger, J. (2007). A Developmental Analysis of a Concept Map, Speech, and Gesture. Asian EFL Journal, 9(3), 58-92.
Van Leeuwen, T. (2005). Introducing Social
Semiotics. NY: Routeledge
Van Leeuwen, T. & Jewitt, C. (2006). The handbook of visual analysis. London, UK; Sage.
Van Lier, L. (1996). Interaction in the language curriculum: Awareness, autonomy, and authenticity. New York: Longman.
Van Lier, L. (2004). The ecology and semiotics of language learning: A sociocultural perspective. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development in higher psychological processes. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1986). Thought and language.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Wells, G. (1999). Dialogic inquiry: Toward a sociocultural practice and theory of Education. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Werner (1978). Microgenesis and aphasia. In S. Barten and M. Franklin (Eds.), Deveopmental processes: Heinz Werner’s selected writings Vol 2 (pp. 429-444). NY: International Universities Press, Inc.
Wertsch, J. (1979). The regulation of human action and the given-new organization of private speech. In G. Ziven (Ed.), The development of self-regulation through private speech (pp. 79-98) New York: John Wiley & Sons.