“Getting what I know across” – Insights into embodiment-based L2 communication on scientific terminology in CLIL primary school science classes

by Anna Bitmann (University of Potsdam, Germany)

_______________________________________________________________________

Gestures serve many roles in learning and understanding language as well as subject matter. Gestures are especially effective when they act as a representation of the underlying knowledge. A characteristic of which young learners oftentimes take advantage if they lack the necessary linguistic competences to express themselves. This talk examines the role and potential of conceptually congruent (iconic) gestures in deepening the understanding of scientific terms (subject matter) and promoting the use of academic discourse functions (language competences) in CLIL science classes in the primary school. 

Drawing on convergent evidence which indicates that concepts are better understood and longer retained when they are learned with conceptually and semantically congruent gestures, the talk presents an intervention study conducted in Grade 4 bilingual science classes (N = 85; n = 48). In the classroom-based project (quasi-experimental mixed methods design), effects of learning L2 scientific terms coupled with iconic gestures vs. animated reading clips were analyzed in two thematically different units (Space and Healthy Foods). 

For the gesture group, the results show that students with L1 English can recall the scientific terms significantly better than students with L1 German after appx. 12 weeks. Although this effect is found in the Space unit only, it is established that both language groups successfully slow down the decaying process of the learned terms and promote long-term retainment with the help of iconic gestures. Concerning the discourse functions, the results demonstrate that students in the iconic gesture group use the discourse function describing/defining and explaining more often than students in the reading group. Furthermore, the analysis shows that iconic gestures helped students retain and express term-specific facts (narrative, nominal, and committed facts) significantly better in the Space unit. The Healthy Foods unit revealed no significant differences concerning the interventions and the language groups. 

The talk concludes by translating the findings into the larger context of improving students’ use of academic foreign language in the CLIL science classroom and the ensuing implications for gesture-based (embodiment-based) strategies in EFL learning. Finally, remaining issues for desirable future research are explored and stated. 

_______________________________________________________________________

References:

Bitmann, A. (2021). Fremdsprachlich sachfachliches Begriffswissen und embodiment. Eine mixed methods-Untersuchung im CLIL-Unterricht der Grundschule. Logos. 

Bitmann, A. (2018). Embodiment in bilingual science classes: Concept knowledge made visible. In H. Böttger, & Sambanis, M. (Eds.). Focus on Evidence II – Netzwerke zwischen Fremdsprachendidaktik und Neurowissenschaften (pp. 141–149). Narr. 

Glenberg, A. M., & Gallese, V. (2012). Action-based language: A theory of language acquisition, comprehension, and production. Cortex, 48(7), 905–922. doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2011.04.010 

Hostetter, A. B., Alibali, M. W., & Kita, S. (2007). Does sitting on your hands make you bite your tongue? The effects of gesture prohibition on speech during motor descriptions. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 29, 1097–1102. 

Kita, S., Alibali, M. W., & Chu, M. (2017). How do gestures influence thinking and speaking? The gesture-for-conceptualization hypothesis. Psychological Review, 124(3), 245–266. 

Macedonia, M., & Klimesch, W. (2014). Long-term effects of gestures on memory for foreign language words trained in the classroom. Mind, Brain, And Education, 8(2), 74–88. 

Repetto, C., Pedroli, E., & Macedonia, M. (2017). Enrichment Effects of Gestures and Pictures on Abstract Words in a Second Language [Original Research]. Frontiers in Psychology, 8(2136). doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02136