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How does language proficiency affect children’s iconic gesture use?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2019

MEGHAN ZVAIGZNE ,
YURIKO OSHIMA-TAKANE  and
MAKIKO HIRAKAWA
MEGHAN ZVAIGZNE
Affiliation:
McGill University
YURIKO OSHIMA-TAKANE*
Affiliation:
McGill University and University of Victoria
MAKIKO HIRAKAWA
Affiliation:
Chuo University
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Yuriko Oshima-Takane, Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, P. O. Box 1700 STN CSC, V8W 2Y2, Canada. E-mail: yuriko.oshima-takane@mcgill.ca
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Abstract

Previous research investigating the relationship between language proficiency and iconic gesture use has produced inconsistent findings. This study investigated whether a linear relationship was assumed although it is a quadratic relationship. Iconic co-speech gesture use by 4- to 6-year-old French–Japanese bilinguals with two levels of French proficiency (intermediate and low) but similar levels of Japanese proficiency was compared with that of high-proficiency French monolinguals (Study 1) and Japanese monolinguals with similar proficiency to the bilinguals (Study 2). To control the information participants communicated, a dynamic referential communication task was used; a difference between two cartoons had to be communicated to an experimenter. Study 1 showed a significant quadratic relationship between proficiency and iconic gesture use in French; the intermediate-proficiency bilinguals gestured least among the three proficiency groups. The monolingual and bilingual groups with similar Japanese proficiency in Study 2 gestured at similar rates. It is suggested that children gestured for different reasons depending on their language proficiency and the cognitive resources available for the task.

Keywords

bilingualchildrenFrenchiconic gesturesJapaneselanguage proficiencymonolingual
Type
Original Article
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , March 2019 , pp. 555 - 583
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

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