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Examining Gesture Production in the Presence of Communication Challenges
Published on: January 26, 2024
Co-speech gesture in bimodal bilinguals
1University of California, San Diego, CA, USA.
Language and Cognitive Processes
|May 12, 2009
Summary
Bimodal bilinguals who know American Sign Language (ASL) and English use more iconic gestures and varied handshapes when speaking English. This suggests ASL influences spoken English co-speech gestures, potentially due to language interaction.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Linguistic Anthropology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Co-speech gestures are spontaneous vocalizations accompanying speech.
- Bimodal bilinguals possess fluency in both a spoken and a signed language.
- The influence of sign language knowledge on spoken language gesture production is not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how knowledge of American Sign Language (ASL) affects the co-speech gestures of bimodal bilinguals speaking English.
- To compare gesture production between bimodal bilinguals and monolingual English speakers.
Main Methods:
- Participants: 13 bimodal bilinguals (ASL/English) and 12 monolingual English speakers.
- Task: Participants retold a cartoon narrative to an unfamiliar listener.
- Analysis: Comparison of spontaneous co-speech gestures, focusing on semantic and formal features.
Main Results:
- Bimodal bilinguals produced more iconic gestures and gestures from a character viewpoint compared to non-signers.
- Bimodal bilinguals used fewer beat gestures and exhibited greater handshape variety and frequency of unmarked handshapes.
- Nine bimodal bilinguals produced ASL signs, suggesting incomplete inhibition of the signed language.
Conclusions:
- Knowledge of ASL influences the semantic and formal properties of co-speech gestures in English.
- These differences likely stem from the interaction between the ASL language production system and the co-speech gesture system.
- Findings highlight the interconnectedness of signed and spoken language processing in bimodal bilinguals.
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