Emblem Gestures Improve Perception and Evaluation of Non-native Speech

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Non-verbal Communication

Background:

• Research traditionally focused on accent perception in isolation.
• The role of non-verbal cues, specifically gestures, in accent evaluation is under-explored.
• Understanding how bodily context influences social and perceptual judgments of non-native speech is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of co-speech emblematic gestures on the perceptual and social evaluation of non-native accent.
• To compare the influence of culturally familiar versus unfamiliar gestures.
• To examine these effects across two different languages: Mandarin and Japanese.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted with native Mandarin and Japanese speakers.
• Participants watched videos of foreign-accented speakers uttering a short phrase under three conditions: speech alone, with a culturally familiar gesture, and with a culturally unfamiliar gesture.
• Evaluations focused on speech perception and social impressions.

Main Results:

• Culturally familiar gestures significantly improved speech perception and social evaluations compared to speech alone.
• Even culturally unfamiliar gestures sometimes facilitated perception and evaluation.
• Findings indicate gesture variability influences non-native accent perception and evaluation.

Conclusions:

• Co-speech gestures play a significant role in modulating the perception and social evaluation of non-native accents.
• Gesture familiarity appears to be a key factor, though unfamiliar gestures can also have positive effects.
• This study underscores the importance of multimodal communication in understanding non-native accent processing.